Voted

[nancylebov]

It 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.

Comments

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

Imho, all voters *should* be asked for ID.

Translation: "Where are your papers?" This is a libertarian speaking?

I live in a suburban precinct and know most of the people who work my polling place, so I've never actually been asked for ID. I disapprove of ID on principle for anything less than access to nuclear facilities. I don't even approve of photos on operators' permits (they are not not not "licenses" dammit!); I hate the way social security #s are rapidly being required for every financial Xaction larger than $1.98; and if they ever actually manage to push through this "National ID" thing I will either emigrate, assassinate Larry Ellison, or both.

Oy. Sorry, Nancy. I'll calm down now. It's the stress of having to vote for a schmuck as the only alternative to a ****head.

[darius.livejournal.com]

I'm also in a suburban precinct; I've voted many times and only once knew a poll worker by sight. Generally I agree that there's too much IDing, but elections seem like a good case for it. (Requiring verifiable voting machines has got to be more important, though.)

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

My libertarianism has occasional slippage. I'm not sure whether this is a problem.

The NY solution of requiring a duplicate signature is probably good enough. I'm a calligrapher, and I'm betting it would take me at least a couple of hours, maybe a good bit more, to learn to do a good fast copy of a signature from memory. I suspect that the vast majority of people couldn't do it at all.

I had to sign in at the poll, but I can't remember whether there was a photocopy of my signature there.