Today I voted. This was a wasted effort — other than forcing me to give fleeting thought to the value inherent in living within a democratic society — because I live in Massachusetts. The act of voting itself was mostly painless. I went to the high school gym, told the lady my address, got a form, went to a cubby and filled out the bubbles with the supplied pen, told a different lady my address, and put my form in the machine. There was a hold up between address lady #2 and the machine because the machine jammed, apparently as a result of not emptying the machine. I peeked at everyone else’s ballots around me and everyone voted for Kerry.
I was highly disturbed that I did not have to show ID. The lady(s) had a book with names and addresses. She asked me for my street address, looked me up, then asked “Are you Brian?” Lady #2 did the same thing. This got me thinking about computer security, which I thought uses a very similar model. So I guess there is no need to worry about fraud — we all know how secure computers are.
So anyway, what with Kerry locking up MA I chose to vote my conscious and cast my ballot for Badnarik the Libertarian. Because Bush is a chump spending dough he doesn’t have on an illegal war, and Kerry’s biggest accomplishment in the Senate is passing a bill awarding a congressional gold medal to Jackie Robinson (Learn more about Kerry’s record in the Senate). What a bunch of stooges.