Time to Vote!
Nov. 8th, 2005 09:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rain_gryphonOkay, voting today was a much less time-consuming process than last year. I walked into the building and down the corridor, with my footfalls echoing in the quiet. I was the only voter there, with six election workers to help me :) The whole process including sign-in took about five minutes.
It astonishes me how few people even bother to vote in offyear elections. If the President isn't involved, nobody wants to bother, even thought hre things we're voting on today can affect us much more directly than anything the Federal government does. I asked a few weeks ago on my mai,ing list how many people were planning to vote, and got roughly the paltry answer I expected, mainly from folx my age and educational level. The younger ones weren't bothering, and in some cases didn't even know there was an election.
One fine young political firebrand replied that he wouldn't vote because representative democracy was a sham - both parties were the same, and he was oppressed by not being allowed to vote directly on issues. It was pointed out that's pretty much what we've got here - we're voting directly today to decide whether and how to amend the State Constitution, and whether to levy taxes for certain projects. He then said that because he wasn't a member of the priveleged classes, no-one had ever told him how to register to vote, so he was oppressed.
When I was 18, my friends and I were eager to vote. I distinctly recall going to the fire house to register for my first time, and how deeply impressed I was that I was now to have a voice in running the mighty Republic itself. It breaks my brain that people aren't interested in controlling their own destiny, although on the whole I think it best that the uninterested don't vote. It does concern me that he wasn't instructed on that in school, though. When I was in grade school and junior high both, our auditorium was used for voting, so every year on the Monday before Election Day we'd discuss elections and the duties of a citizen, and we'd all troop up and actually practice using the voting machines, which was instructive for us and allowed the testing of the machines under load as well.
Our family was always political anyway, although none of us ever did campaign work or the like. Voting was taken very seriously, and politics were discussed a lot. Every election night, too, the cable company used to run "The Music Man" on their public access channel, and announce returns during the breaks. That helped suck me into it, since that was (and remains) my favourite musical. We'd stay up late, and eat Fritos with bleu cheese dip, and watch "The Music Man". I wonder still why they always played "The Music Man" every single year. I'm guessing either they thought that representative of the best of America (which I can see) or else they'd bought a copy of it and had unlimited broadcast rights - maybe a combination. I'd watch that tonight if work didn't intervene.
It astonishes me how few people even bother to vote in offyear elections. If the President isn't involved, nobody wants to bother, even thought hre things we're voting on today can affect us much more directly than anything the Federal government does. I asked a few weeks ago on my mai,ing list how many people were planning to vote, and got roughly the paltry answer I expected, mainly from folx my age and educational level. The younger ones weren't bothering, and in some cases didn't even know there was an election.
One fine young political firebrand replied that he wouldn't vote because representative democracy was a sham - both parties were the same, and he was oppressed by not being allowed to vote directly on issues. It was pointed out that's pretty much what we've got here - we're voting directly today to decide whether and how to amend the State Constitution, and whether to levy taxes for certain projects. He then said that because he wasn't a member of the priveleged classes, no-one had ever told him how to register to vote, so he was oppressed.
When I was 18, my friends and I were eager to vote. I distinctly recall going to the fire house to register for my first time, and how deeply impressed I was that I was now to have a voice in running the mighty Republic itself. It breaks my brain that people aren't interested in controlling their own destiny, although on the whole I think it best that the uninterested don't vote. It does concern me that he wasn't instructed on that in school, though. When I was in grade school and junior high both, our auditorium was used for voting, so every year on the Monday before Election Day we'd discuss elections and the duties of a citizen, and we'd all troop up and actually practice using the voting machines, which was instructive for us and allowed the testing of the machines under load as well.
Our family was always political anyway, although none of us ever did campaign work or the like. Voting was taken very seriously, and politics were discussed a lot. Every election night, too, the cable company used to run "The Music Man" on their public access channel, and announce returns during the breaks. That helped suck me into it, since that was (and remains) my favourite musical. We'd stay up late, and eat Fritos with bleu cheese dip, and watch "The Music Man". I wonder still why they always played "The Music Man" every single year. I'm guessing either they thought that representative of the best of America (which I can see) or else they'd bought a copy of it and had unlimited broadcast rights - maybe a combination. I'd watch that tonight if work didn't intervene.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 06:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 05:48 am (UTC)I voted first thing in the morning. It was just four related propositions for school improvements, here. I voted yes on them, though I was tempted to vote no on the bond offering. Bonds aren't really the way to pay for things if you can avoid it. But it was a reasonable amount, and for physical infrastructure things, so it made sense as an investment, even with the paying of interest. It's not like *not* keeping up the buildings is holding onto value.
There have been years when I've been away from home that I deliberately didn't vote. I didn't know the issues, and felt it was my duty not to guess at things out of ignorance. Now that I'm settled again, I haven't missed an election.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 06:12 am (UTC)I liked the old lever machines myself. Those are what we always had in Indiana. They're easy to use, and hard to cheat with. It's just very satisfying to pull the big lever and feel the mechanism moving as the recorder wheels turn, and the curtain slides open. You feel like you've actually done something at that point, moreso than sticking a punchcard in a box or pressing the green button and seeing the LEDs go out on the new machines.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 12:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-09 03:50 pm (UTC)I suspect the reasons are several:
1) How often we are asked to vote (twice a year. I suspect elsewhere it is much less)
2) How many things are on the ballot (I suspect elsewhere it is far fewer)
3) How often school boards hold special elections so they can coerce the populace into passing school levies.
The third has me kinda ticked. I've seen school districts put tax levies on the November ballot. Then, when it fails, they cancel all extra curricular activities and hold a special election in February. Then, when it fails again, cancel some other popular activity and go back to the voters again.
Of course, they *never* cut administration. Oh, no! Those people are too important!
I don't know if you noticed when Pickerington did this a year or so ago. They had a levy fail, so they cancelled all sports. The parents went to the school board and suggested a pay-to-play plan that would have the participants shoulder all the cost. This was rejected by the board, since it removed their leverage to get the tax levy passed.