I Voted!

D. and I went and voted this morning! Whoo-hoo! That was my first time voting in a presidential election and I have to say that there's something oddly exhilarating about it. You can help with campaign efforts, you can go on protest marches, you can donate to causes, but there's a sense of empowerment at the opportunity to cast a ballot alongside... er... Joe the Plumber (ok, I'm going to change that to Carlos the CTA Bus Driver... and D. the Professor). I hope I'm not kidding myself. After what happened in 2000, there's very real concern about ballots not being counted, and that concern turned into worry that MY ballot wouldn't be counted. So I figured that as long as the machines are still reported to be working, I'd get my vote in early. Apparently up to 30% of voters will be voting early this year, including this voter whose vote, I'm happy to report, I have canceled out today.

Chicago has 51 early voting locations, and you're allowed to go to any of them regardless of where in the city you live. We chose one in our neighborhood, the Chicago Park District's Jackson Park building. It's a community center that has table-tennis tables, pianos, etc. (I heard the most beautiful jazz piano being hammered out on my way in). There was not a single person in line when we got there. All of the voting machines were occupied though, so there was a brief wait. We had brought along our U.S. passports as ID, and I was highly amused that the lady who took it from me opened it up to a random page in the center, looked at what turned out to be my visa to India issued two years ago, and handed it back to me. I told her that she had just looked at a visa in my passport and not the front ID page. She said, "That's okay, it's a government-issued ID with a photograph on it." So apparently, that government could be Republic of India? (I shouldn't be too harsh... these are all volunteers from the neighborhood and I may one day volunteer to do the same thing, but that just shows one more hole in a process riddled with holes).

The last time I voted, it was on a huge paper ballot that you had to mark and then have an official scan into a machine. This time it was a touch-screen machine that resembled an ATM machine. ("What would you like to do? Withdraw Cash? Check Balance? Vote for Obama?"). I'm not sure if photography was allowed but if anyone followed my travel blog from last year, you know my policy on taking photographs: desist only if asked to. So here's a (blurry) picture of one of my screens.