Well, the deed is done — I done did vote. On one of those scary touch-screen deals.
In my new conspiracy-laden mind, I can fathom that the 2000 election was deliberately screwed up to set the stage for Diebold and other big conservative contributors to rework our ballot systems. What a fantastic opportunity! First, create a huge industry, a demand for new voting technology that isn’t needed, and at the same time make it easier to tamper with the voting! Genius!
Now, I ask you: what is wrong with marking a slip of paper and sticking it in the box? I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it:
- people don’t want to wait for results
- harder to quickly and quietly tamper with the results
- it wouldn’t line the pockets of voting machine companies
I surprised myself by not voting in a mindless, lockstep Democratic line. I spent a lot of time in the last couple of weeks trying to decipher all the Propositions on the ballot here, and I could have spent a few more months still. They are long and abstrusely written, so much so that it is obvious that the drafters wanted the public to not understand them, they wanted the public to rely on special interest groups and advocacy groups to translate. Still, I did get the gist of them. I’m not telling how I voted on them, because I believe that we still have a secret ballot in this country — at least, until someone decides that a secret ballot would be victory for terrorists.
Now, a bit more work before I sit down with the trusty picture-in-picture to watch something entertaining while keeping one eye on the returns. I’m not prepared to devote my heart and soul to this and have it crushed yet again.
