My civic duty

I voted this morning around ten o'clock.  There were no lines and half of the parking lot was empty.  My polling place is an Elks' Lodge off of a busy street in a retail stretch of town, so I doubt a lot of people walk to this particular polling place.

In these here parts we vote the old fashion way.  They give us a ballot and a black marker, and we have to fill in ovals next to the candidate of our choice.  The ballot then goes into a machine and I assume the ballots are read much like the ACT test is.  Unless you are a complete moron, there's no way to mess this up.  There are signs everywhere in the booth telling you not to use an "X" or a check mark. 

When I think about the ballot problems in 2000, I can't help but think that most of the guilt has to go to the voters themselves.  There wouldn't have been any "hanging chads" if people had taken the time to look at the ballot that they just voted on for pieces that did not separate.  That being said, I don't understand that in this day and age why we cannot have a universal voting system that all states would use.  With the computer technology of today, why can't we have touch voting that keeps automated track of the votes and can give totals as soon as the polls close?  I would think that keeping a hard copy of results would not be difficult in case of protests.

I have one last political entry that I am going to do, and that will focus on the Senate race in Illinois.  Tonight I am considering blogging in real time as I sit and watch the different networks digest their results.  I'm sure tomorrow I will have some ideas and thoughts on the results.

But then, I am shutting down.  After my one post-election entry (which I warn you may be 34,000 words or so), I will not be writing anything about politics for the rest of November.  I'm fried, and I need to get back to the creative process of finding unique things to write about.

I hope today finds record turnout all over the country.  I can handle things not going the way I want them to if it means people all over have spoken.  It infuriates me when people don't vote.

So here we go...