Civic responsibility

So, armed with photo ID & a utility bill proving I do indeed reside here (haven’t got around to getting a Washington driver’s license—probably subconsciously unwilling to make that ultimate commitment) I showed up 45 minutes ago at the Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Bellevue to perform my civic duty.

I also had a book to read in case of long lines.

Now, considering that Metro Seattle is supposed to be the Silicon Sound, as it were, a hotbed of high tech, imagine my surprise at discovering how…manual the process was.

I had to check in with a young woman at a table, who found me on a list & then directed me across the room to another set of people behind tables, specifically to “Bob”. I’m guessing Bob was about 103 & very methodical about looking you up on his rolls. I showed him my company badge because my name is in BIG LETTERS. He still had trouble finding me.

As he flipped through the pages, I pointed out my name. He instructed me to write my name in another book & then handed me a very long paper ballot, printed on both sides.

I completely freaked out when I realized that the voting “booths” were entirely open & cheek-by-jowl next to one another. I could have cribbed off the ballots of the man & woman to either side of me if I’d wanted.

Then I obsessed over making sure I filled the little ovals correctly—all fully covered, nothing extending outside the line.

I’ve NEVER had a ballot that had to be marked like that. & I’ve been voting for a while.

Also interesting was the way the ballot was “organized”: instructions, state measures, county measures, federal offices, state offices, county measures, judges, city measures. I think this is the first time voting in three states that the office of President of the United States hasn’t taken precedence.

In fact I pretty much had to HUNT out the candidates for Leader of the Free World.

Well, I made my way through the maze (skipping over the county measures about which I know nothing; ditto the judges), rolled up my paper & walked back to the entrance to the hall, where there was this shredder-looking machine that sucks up your ballot. Not sure what happens to it after that, except that it’s going to be a tedious process going thru them to record all those black oval blobs.

(At least no prissy Republican women in their Republican suits sitting there as “poll watchers” checking for any Dem-looking voters they can intimidate out of casting their ballot. [& I know they were ’Pubs because they had little badges SAYING so.] As they were in Virginia the last time I voted on the day instead of absent. That was enough to make me cast my ballot as an absentee ever since.)

I got an “I voted” sticker, & noticed that it’s also stamped “farewell to polls”. & now I understand why most of Washington votes by mail. If there’d been more than the ten or so voters there when I was, all this to-ing & fro-ing would have been utterly chaotic. As would getting one of those “privacy booths” (as they’re referred to in a Seattle Post-Intelligencer report); there was no traffic direction, it was every voter for him/herself.

I have to say I’m not even whelmed by this. As with the state-run liquor stores, Washington is managing to make Virginia look positively progressive in the process of electing our leaders.

Still, as gobsmackingly early 20th-century as this experience was, I am fully aware of how precious & hard-won this right is. & I’m grateful for the opportunity to be counted, even by the black oval blob.