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nancylebovIt was remarkably little trouble. There was no line. I'm hoping that means we have enough polling stations in the area (or that most potential voters are at work or school at this hour) rather than that no one is bothering.
I showed the card which had been mailed to me which identifies my polling place before I was asked for anything. I wasn't asked for any other ID. Imho, all voters *should* be asked for ID. My impression is that the default of no ID is based in the idea that people live in the same place long enough that they'd be known to the poll workers. This is no longer reliably the case.
I wore a fresh-made "Hold your nose and vote for Kerry" button--got one compliment and handed out two business cards, one of which may have been welcome.
I forgot to check on whether the voting machine was a Shouptronic (as promised by mypollingplace.com), but it has a nice clean interface. You press a spot next to your preferred
candidate's name, and it lights up. Unfortunately, there was no paper trail.
If I'd realized how few candidates I was dealing with, I might have done more research. As it was, I voted for Kerry, Spector (Senate, moderate Republican, seems harmless), and Bradly (House, Democrat, voted against handing suspects over to foreign governments to be tortured). Since Philadelphia is Kerry country and my other two votes are for incumbants, I'm relatively sure that my vote will be counted.
I showed the card which had been mailed to me which identifies my polling place before I was asked for anything. I wasn't asked for any other ID. Imho, all voters *should* be asked for ID. My impression is that the default of no ID is based in the idea that people live in the same place long enough that they'd be known to the poll workers. This is no longer reliably the case.
I wore a fresh-made "Hold your nose and vote for Kerry" button--got one compliment and handed out two business cards, one of which may have been welcome.
I forgot to check on whether the voting machine was a Shouptronic (as promised by mypollingplace.com), but it has a nice clean interface. You press a spot next to your preferred
candidate's name, and it lights up. Unfortunately, there was no paper trail.
If I'd realized how few candidates I was dealing with, I might have done more research. As it was, I voted for Kerry, Spector (Senate, moderate Republican, seems harmless), and Bradly (House, Democrat, voted against handing suspects over to foreign governments to be tortured). Since Philadelphia is Kerry country and my other two votes are for incumbants, I'm relatively sure that my vote will be counted.
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-02 08:43 am (UTC)except the impression you have is wrong...it isn't from the idea of people staying in one place, but because in the US south, after blacks were granted the right to vote, they were frequently disenfranchised as a result of not having 'enough ID', or 'the right ID', or *any* ID at times... Even now, that's a standard way of discouraging voters; to stand around the line (until told to leave) at the polling place and tell people that they need 2 pieces of id, or it has to be a driver's license and nothing else is acceptable, yadda yadda. It wasn't until MLK and his organization made a huge effort in registration drives in the south that that started to be turned against the people who chose that way of harassment (live in Atlanta long enough and the amount of knowledge one has about MLK and black rights in the south seeps into your brain).
no subject
Date: 2004-11-02 09:43 am (UTC)It does seem as though an ID requirement could be handled honestly--PA seems alright. A wide range of IDs (only required for new registrants) are acceptable: just about any picture ID or rent receipt or utility bill and probably some I've forgotten.
Leaving too much room for fraud strikes me as almost as bad as intimidating voters.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-02 05:48 pm (UTC)In theory, requiring voters to be able to read and write could be handled honestly.
In the United States, in living memory, it was so consistently and deliberately used for undemocratic purposes that it's hard to believe that it wouldn't be used that way again (and the Constitution was amended to ban literacy requirements for voting).
The identification method New York uses is simple: they have a copy of each voter's signature, and you have to sign in when you vote. (I don't know what they use for illiterates.)