Ah, the joys of voting in Florida

[zouzounaki]

Yeah, so my sister was off to the polls first thing this morning. Believe the hype folks: Florida is teh suck when it comes to voting. You can start out bright eyed and bushy tailed, confident that "Those things" only happen in extreme situations; the voters being turned away from polling places because the "machines aren't working"; the volunteers trying their damned hardest to frustrate and turn away as many people as they can.

Hell, it happened to my sister. Yup, in nice, residential, safe Gainesville, where the vote is usually overwhelmingly Democratic (we were one of the very few counties were no recount was required, Gore was the clear winner) did we run in to one horrendously stupid and stubborn woman who, because she couldn't understand what my sister was saying (my sister's deaf but speaks very well and very clearly, to the point where most don't realize she is completely deaf, though it does say it on her licence) wanted to hold her back. Absolutely truthful. She made my sister recite our address TWICE while she scrutinized the signature on her driver's licence against the one she used to sign in; she wouldn't give her back her licence until she was satisfied it was the same. I think she was a step away from telling my sister that she was "unfit" to vote when another, friendlier and younger woman stepped in and corrected it as fast as she could. A less tenacious voter would have given up, which I'm pretty sure was the point, but we are talking about my sister here! ;-) Did I mention that it proudly displays our party affiliations next to our names?

Stupid, obnoxious, prejudicial bitch.

Peace, Ghani

Comments

[dreamybritactor.livejournal.com]

I see you and I voted the same. May I say WTF?

I think it is a plot by the Republicans against the Democrats myself. ;-)

When I started voting, I voted Republican and after GW, I switched to Democrat. We just got this call, it was a mean man's voice - This is your last chance to get out and vote. The Republican's need your vote. I hung up the phone at that point. GEEZE Louise!

[ghanistarkiller.livejournal.com]

We were actually just shaking free of a double-Bush-whammy in the gubernatorial race (though neither of the two candidates seems so smashingly better than Jeb, le sigh!)

Oh, God, I got all those aggressive phone calls too! What's up with that?! It's as if they decided that the millions of junk mail postcards I get and throw out and the hours of dirty campaign commercials weren't enough, they have to hassle you over the phone too! That's just rude no matter what the party!

I'm just not crazy about a system that allows partisanism at a polling place. I mean, sure, there are always the hundreds of signs stuck to the ground just beyond the library or church's property, but the amount of people hassling me on my way to the door and the pollers wearing partisan buttons while being able to see your party affiliation right there, it's uncomfortable and just doesn't seem quite fair.

The system's just broke in Florida, we have trouble EVERY election, and it's not going to be fixed any time soon. Grrr.