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One Ballot Item
Tuesday, 8 May 2012 21:49Voted
Around 5pm. Voter number 54 in my precinct, ballot number 145 and count number 130 on the machine I cast my vote in. Renewal of the school millage in place since Prop A changed the way schools were financed years ago.
Solving Problems That Don't Exist
The procedure for voting always starts with filling in a little paper form. New this time since the Primary? Q: Are you a citizen of the USA? Woman next to me. "Can non-citizens vote?" Poll worker. "Well this is the sort of thing we're trying to prevent."
Snort.
This same poll worker asked if I had my photo ID. I said yes. She told me I needed to have it out for the workers at the Precinct table. I said I'd get it out. She wanted me to get it out. Really? Do you need to see it? No. Well I have a reason not to get it out yet -- if I drop it while crossing this large empty room in the church used for polling, I'd have trouble picking it up.
But rationality appears to have fled someone enthusiastically worried about non-citizens voting, so I got out my damn ID.
At the Precinct table the next surprise -- the books are gone. Used to have to talk to the person who had my section of the alphabet. But now they have a laptop with a mag stripe reader, to read my MI driver's license. On the second try. After swiping it first in one direction and the the other. Hmmm... used to was that you could prove identity with a US Passport. Is the card reader mag stripe or optical character reader or both?
You know that little application form I mentioned earlier? The one with the YES/NO question about whether you're a citizen of the USA? (Who says that? Everyone says US citizen, not citizen of the USA.) You have to print your name, then sign it. I couldn't see the computer screen, so I don't know if the signature is on the computer as it was printed in the old book -- or whether they trust the photo ID car YOU brought into the place. But you filled out that little form in pencil on a table with a rough nubbly surface which pretty much makes all signatures illegible.
Yeah, this is serious first-class security procedures to prevent the thousands of foreigners trying to skew a small town local school millage election.
Wonder what all this security theatre is costing us.
Really.
Dr. Phil
Around 5pm. Voter number 54 in my precinct, ballot number 145 and count number 130 on the machine I cast my vote in. Renewal of the school millage in place since Prop A changed the way schools were financed years ago.
Solving Problems That Don't Exist
The procedure for voting always starts with filling in a little paper form. New this time since the Primary? Q: Are you a citizen of the USA? Woman next to me. "Can non-citizens vote?" Poll worker. "Well this is the sort of thing we're trying to prevent."
Snort.
This same poll worker asked if I had my photo ID. I said yes. She told me I needed to have it out for the workers at the Precinct table. I said I'd get it out. She wanted me to get it out. Really? Do you need to see it? No. Well I have a reason not to get it out yet -- if I drop it while crossing this large empty room in the church used for polling, I'd have trouble picking it up.
But rationality appears to have fled someone enthusiastically worried about non-citizens voting, so I got out my damn ID.
At the Precinct table the next surprise -- the books are gone. Used to have to talk to the person who had my section of the alphabet. But now they have a laptop with a mag stripe reader, to read my MI driver's license. On the second try. After swiping it first in one direction and the the other. Hmmm... used to was that you could prove identity with a US Passport. Is the card reader mag stripe or optical character reader or both?
You know that little application form I mentioned earlier? The one with the YES/NO question about whether you're a citizen of the USA? (Who says that? Everyone says US citizen, not citizen of the USA.) You have to print your name, then sign it. I couldn't see the computer screen, so I don't know if the signature is on the computer as it was printed in the old book -- or whether they trust the photo ID car YOU brought into the place. But you filled out that little form in pencil on a table with a rough nubbly surface which pretty much makes all signatures illegible.
Yeah, this is serious first-class security procedures to prevent the thousands of foreigners trying to skew a small town local school millage election.
Wonder what all this security theatre is costing us.
Really.
Dr. Phil
