All Hallow's Eve

I went and voted tonight; to avoid Trick or Treaters that may or may not have come to my front door. I don't have the money to shell out candy to these Munchkin Thieves.

I got in line at 6:11 and entered the doors at 8:05. The ballot was 5 pages long, front and back, and it took me about 14 minutes to fill it out. However, I love the fact that it is a paper ballot ... something that can be recounted. Plus, it was very interesting that this new system prints out the ballot when you sign in. They were very organized. Three people checking you in on the computers and there were 25-30 booths. The only reason the lines were long was because the ballot had just too much on it, small print, and written in three languages.

It may be very undemocratic of me, but I still say that if you vote in this country, you should speak and read English. I truly believe that a ballot should be written only in one language. It was written in English, Spanish and Creole. As for all the amendments and charter changes, anything that would cost money, I voted against. I don't want my taxes to go up and we cannot afford it. I also hate these multi-million dollar "studies" that community leaders like to spend money on. You either need something or you don't.

Of course, I also voted against changing the State Constitution regarding same-sex unions/marriages. I didn't vote for any Judges, since I could find nothing on them and there was no campaign literature available online nor at the poll. I did not vote for the Mayor's older brother for Sheriff (I felt it was a conflict of interest) and after talking with both candidates for School Board member, while waiting in line, chose the man over the woman, mainly because the woman kept looking at my feet and would not look me in the eye.

Local Political Ads

It is obvious that money is an issue this election season, for local politics. I guess it sort of snuck up on them. The polls here in Broward County have been open since Monday and I'm just now getting my first mail flyers (not counting the presidential cards and letters).

I'm quite underwhelmed.

Example: Some guy running for a School Board position. He is the only one that I've gotten anything about. The heavy paper advertisement had so many people on it, you couldn't tell who was running. I ended up going to his website to see which guy it was.

His qualifications are questionable. His parents were school teachers in Broward County. Is that a good thing? He is also an engineer. He has been on the Hollywood Development Review Board since 2004. He thinks that is a good thing? He has one 2-year-old child, so he has no current educational reason to be on the board. Harvard degree in Engineering seems better suited to what he is doing now, but considering the state of things here in Hollywood, it doesn't look like he knows what he is doing.

I think I'm know what I'm going to do. Vote a strict party ticket and let the population that has to deal with everything else, vote for everything else.

I was going to vote today, however ...

Early on, I had decided to vote early and thought, I would get it out of the way and do it the first day, however ... I heard that there were first day voting machine problems and lines at some polling places.

To top it off, I looked at my sample ballot that came in two weeks ago, and to my horror, the ballot is a big as a Harry Potter book with mumbo jumbo Constitutional amendments, Broward County Charter amendments and elections for people that I assume have no campaigning budgets, because just as in the primary, I have not received a single ad in the mail.

Will try and find some information on the questions that are not worded as questions and vote a solid Democratic ticket.

I guess I'll vote on Thursday. I have that tree coming down tomorrow and I'm working on the raised beds in the backyard. Wednesday, my friends from Naperville, IL will be coming for the day. That leaves Thursday as the earliest to perform my civic duty.

News came on tonight that Barack's grandmother is gravely ill. Sounds like hospice. My thoughts are with him.

Obama Gas

Gas station owner has gone all out for Obama!

The Ghost Election was today

The Ghost election was today. It spirited itself away from my mind. Well ... let us just say that I forgot.

How forgettable.

Seems I'm not the only one to forget either. Full Story

From the full story link above, I read that the workers are basically worried about the election in November, when turn out will be high and people will not know how to vote. I guess people just threw Dr. Snipe's flyer away!

Like I said before, I feel a nightmare coming on, but next time, the eyes of the country will be on us. Instead of the nation talking about FL and Chads, they'll be talking about how we don't even know how to hold a pen and fill in a circle completely.

Horrors!

The Ghost Election

I got a huge flyer two weeks ago from Dr. Brenda C. Snipes, Broward County Supervisor of Elections. This 17" x 22" flyer contained a sample ballot written in three languages. The front of the flyer (back half of flyer) contained early voting places and times. The back showed how to use the new voting machines.

I can only imagine that the reason this flyer was in such detail was because Dr. Snipes is on the Ballot. I know, because her name was the only one I recognized. I have seen no signs up and until today, have not received any junk mail from the candidates.

There is also a proposed County Charter Amendment on the ballot, that of course, you would have to have a law degree to understand.

I'm sure that this election is important, as every seat and position on the ballot has two or more people running for it. Just who these people are I have no idea.

About 24 hours before TS Fay was suppose to impact Hollywood, I got a recorded message from Eleanor Sobel, letting me know that she was thinking about me and to make sure I knew that a tropical storm was headed for my abode. She also stated in this dinnertime message that if I needed help not to hesitate to contact her and they she would make sure that I weathered the storm in a safe environment. How sweet!

This message ended with: "This has been a paid political advertisement."

I took out Dr. Snipes' only political advertisement, paid for by the taxpayers of Broward Country and found out that Ms. Sobel was indeed running for office. She is running in the Democratic Party Primary for State Senator District 31.

Then, last night, at Dinnertime, I got another recorded message from Ms. Sobel hoping that I had not drowned in TS Fay. I didn't even let the message complete itself. I hung up.

Today, I got my first political flyer in the mail for the August 26th election. It was in the form of a postcard that was so flimsy, that I thought it was part of the Publix sale flyer. It was from the Broward county Democratic Committee telling me that Joanne Witherspoon and Helen Chervin were on the ballot and that I should vote for them, because of their proven record. Well, perhaps Ms. Witherspoon and Ms. Chervin should contact their fellow democrat, Dr. Snipes, since among the 70 people listed on the Democrat side of the ballot, they are not on it.

I think from now on, I will call this election the "Ghost Election." I don't think the 150 people running even know when it is and they obviously don't care if anyone votes for them or not.

I think I will go, just to learn how to use the new voting machines, which from the instructions, I not only need to have my voter registration, but I will have to "swipe" my driver's licence then sign a computer pad, that looks like I'm "paying" to vote using my license rather than a credit card and then when the licence and signature are matched electronically, I will get a voter's pass which I will had to another person who will give me a pen and a blue or red piece of paper that I must give to another worker who will give me a ballot and escort me to the booth. It doesn't say if I have to raise my hand or yell and someone to escort me to the machine that looks like a papershredder to insert it, or whether I can just chance it and find that machine by my own lonesome. I do know that I cannot use my own pen.

I feel a nightmare coming on!