Just in the nick of time, my official Election Ballot arrived via UPS. Oddly enough, two Ballots arrived. One had my old Cambridge address on the sticker and the other had the new one I have here in Vancouver. I think that the reason for the duplication is because I applied for one this year, even though I was probably going to be getting one anyway (since I’m still registered to vote in Massachusetts. I did not send in both. Voter fraud is not something I ever want to be associated with.
It was strange, filling it out at home, and at the moment I filled in the oval for Obama, he was giving a stump speech on the television, so I made a small salute to him as I voted. You can’t do that in a voting booth. Yes, an odd feeling.
In addition to the Presidential ticket, there were a few other votes to make. Sentaor Kerry was running against Jeffrey K. Beatty, a Republican and Robert J. Underwood, a Libertarian I’d never heard of. I expect that one will be a blowout for Kerry, but I don’t blame those guys for trying. The other seats, including Representative, District Councillor, Senator in General Court, Representative in General Court and Register of Probate were all Democrats running unopposed. Finally, there were 3 questions, one an initiative to lower the personal tax rate (while this really doesn’t affect us, I was curious as to the why, aside from the usual reasons — everyone always wants lower taxes), another that essentially decriminilizes Marijuanna (woo hoo!), and the last would outlaw dog racing. It will be interesting to see how that one goes.
Later, I went down to the post office with Pam’s ballot and mine (she got her’s a day or so ago). I walked down to the one in the Kid’s Market on Granville Island, which is probably the closest one to us. As I was waiting in line, a fellow noticed the official envelopes and asked if I was voting early. I told him I was, and also confirmed that I was in fact voting for the same fellow the rest of the world wanted. He wished me good luck, and again, it felt like one of the strangest votes I’ve ever made.
Congratulations, David. This part of “the rest of the world” thanks you.
as a canadian, i’m fascinated with american balloting. especially that you actually get to vote when there is only one candidate running for a position (i.e. councillor or register of probate).
our ballots are small and simple in comparison.
it makes me just a little jealous!
p.s. thank you for posting the photo of your ballot. that was awesome.
Thanks Mike and Heather -
I actually wondered if it was ‘OK’ to post the ballot, but as far as I know there’s no law against doing that. It was convenient that I had a separate duplicate to scan because I was able to scan it after I had mailed the others off to Massachusetts.
Looking forward to voting in a Canadian election some day, no matter how small and simple the ballots are. 🙂
My ballot was mailed back to Florida about two weeks ago now. You’re right, it was a rather odd feeling filling it out up here. Unlike Massachusetts, however, our part of Florida is primarily repuglican candidates running unopposed. I, too gave the vote to “the man the rest of the world wants” although my actual choice was Kucinich.
That’s not going to happen in my lifetime, however .…
Pam was a Kucinich fan, too. I know what you mean about it not going to happen in your lifetime (or any of our lifetimes, for that matter).
I think there’s something wrong when 2 (or more) states like MA and FL can have the vast majority of their candidates, from either party, running unopposed. It just doesn’t serve anybody when there is so much power with no viable opposing point of view.
That said, if the Democrats do lose the presidency this time, it really is time to get rid of them and get a real opposition party. Otherwise, it’s just an illusion of choice.
Thanks for posting your ballot paper — that was very informative for us here in Australia following the election results on-line today. In Oz the ballot papers look very different, and we can’t propose initiatives for law reform on the ballot over here either.