Confession of an Ignorant Voter

[beachmom]

Yep -- that was me today. I went to vote for City Council, and I only knew ONE name. I didn't realize there were going to be a whole BUNCH of things to vote for (I'm having a problem with my newspaper delivery, plus I was out of town). I stuck the card in the Diebold machine (my kids were driving me nuts today so I had neither the energy nor the will to get all worked up about Diebold today), and the screen immediately shows all of these names and jobs I've never heard of. I looked and looked, feeling like I just showed up for an SAT exam, and realized I had NO IDEA what the answer could be. The ultimate multiple guess test. Then I decided to stick with principle. If I'm ignorant, I'm not voting. So I voted for the one lady I heard good things about, and simply didn't pick anyone for the other jobs. That'll be funny if any of the races are close -- they'll look at my ballot and scream FRAUD!! Who would show up and only vote for ONE CONTEST. Well. That would be me.

All of this reminds me of my funniest 2004 Election story. One week before the presidential election, my friend calls me asking for the Voter Guide that came with the Sunday paper. We talk a few minutes about the presidential race, and then she asks me "Didn't one of them serve in Vietnam or something?" I had to contain my laughter and tell her that yes, John Kerry was in Vietnam (hey, for the incurious vote, the SBL actually HELPED Kerry, because those just channel surfing would have just seen pictures of him from Vietnam over and over again!). But now the shoe's on the other foot. And the people deeply concerned with Virginia Beach are sneering at people like me -- people who just didn't bother to study up before voting. 'Course for me, my knowledge of the Iraqi government is more significant than my city, probably because there aren't 10 trillion blogs opining on VB.

I just needed to get that off my chest. Hopefully the Voting God will forgive me . . .

[sandnsea]

1. I voted today too, by mail

The county assessor?? School Superintendent? Supreme Court Justice? Yikes!!! I missed some of those races myself.

Aaah, the internets. I go look up web sites, newspaper articles, endorsements. Much better.

I even decided on a school tax increase because I was able to research exactly what our school is spending per pupil, a paltry $7500. Incredible, and we're a fairly wealthy town. That was an easy yes.

I'm telling ya guys, mail-in has so many advantages. Now I just drop it off in a ballot box, it goes to ONE county location, gets tallied and the results sent to the state. We still need improvements, but it's much less susceptible to fraud than what the rest of the country has.

[ginnyinWI]

2. well I'll tell you where our local elections are at:

You go in to vote, and everyone is running in those smaller offices unopposed! And they're all Repubs. So where our Dem party is at now,in this area, is to simply get these races filled with Dems.
Slowly but surely, I guess we will--and the Kerry/Edwards race did give us a huge boost locally. I mean, we're on the map now at least, having regular monthly meetings and a permanent office space. And a Dem mayor just got elected to the county's largest city. :)

[beachmom]

3. No party affiliation listed for our City Council

Otherwise, I would have just been lazy, and voted straight D. In general, I'm against that because you have to make sure that none of the people are corrupt. But man, the small stuff feels like homework for me. I'll study better next time.

[JohnKleeb]

4. I can't even vote in town elections

because I don't live in the "town of" area. It sucks because the immigration issue really has been big in my town. I know a little bit about what's going on locally but not much.

[fedupinBushcountry]

5. I haven't gone to vote yet

like you, I have no idea who is who. All I see are a dozen or more names on street corners. To me it is hard to vote when you don't know their affiliation , I think one of them Samuels was endorsed by Kellam and retired Cong. Owen Pickett, other than that I have no idea. They had an article in the paper last week about how many people that are running in all the cities, have not even voted themselves in recent elections.

OT-Beachmom they had an article in Sunday's paper that they are now going to blog, so that should be interesting. Also while you were gone the Road Rage guy on Wavy 10, Andy Fox (he also ran for congressman awhile back) got arrested for DUI.