Thoughts from the Front
Already I've been asked for a report about the voting debacle in Knox County. Later today I will have a voting diary, to the best re-creation my exhausted, bureaucracy-addled brain can muster. Here are my first thoughts.
9 and 1/2 hours. Yes really. About two of it in the rain.
I hate democracy.
No, seriously, I really do. I particularly hate the cheapass prideful meddlesome version practiced around these parts.
I will never, again, in my life, set foot in a polling station in Ohio. I have plans for every election day as long as I draw breath. Those plans are "not letting you cheap bastards bend me over again."
And yet, to all the folks screeching about disenfranchisement and conservative plots and the entrenched power structure, let me remind you of a basic principle: never blame on malice what is more easily blamed on gross incompetence. Yes, someone on the Board of Elections said "Gawrsh golly gee, Andy, registrations sure are up in lil' ol' Gambier! Think we should buy us another one of them newfangled voting machines?"
And Andy said "Well, Gomer, first of all, they ain't all that newfangled anymore, and they'd cost us a pretty penny. Better not go spending the taxpayers' money and sacred trust. How would we look if they don't turn out!"
Central Ohio: It's not the hate, it's the stupidity.
9 and 1/2 hours. Yes really. About two of it in the rain.
I hate democracy.
No, seriously, I really do. I particularly hate the cheapass prideful meddlesome version practiced around these parts.
I will never, again, in my life, set foot in a polling station in Ohio. I have plans for every election day as long as I draw breath. Those plans are "not letting you cheap bastards bend me over again."
And yet, to all the folks screeching about disenfranchisement and conservative plots and the entrenched power structure, let me remind you of a basic principle: never blame on malice what is more easily blamed on gross incompetence. Yes, someone on the Board of Elections said "Gawrsh golly gee, Andy, registrations sure are up in lil' ol' Gambier! Think we should buy us another one of them newfangled voting machines?"
And Andy said "Well, Gomer, first of all, they ain't all that newfangled anymore, and they'd cost us a pretty penny. Better not go spending the taxpayers' money and sacred trust. How would we look if they don't turn out!"
Central Ohio: It's not the hate, it's the stupidity.
posted by Joe at 8:37 AM
7 Comments:
Wow, Joe--sounds hellish.
I miss walking to the polling place--made me feel like I was part of a tradition dating back to Jefferson--but I like voting with an internet connection nearby.
Were people friendly? Were there cookies? Were the poll workers, like totally clueless? Sympathetic? Gambier in the national news...I totally want to know!
PH
"We shall all go on requesting till you tell us never doubt it/ everything is interesting/ tell us tell us all about it."
My great-great grandmother was arrested on several occasions for marching in the suffrage rallies in the 1910s. She'd be very proud of you and Gambier.
Your grandmother, dear Lemming, was jailed for publicly protesting a fundamentally unjust, indeed un-American system. She sacrificed for a social change which has lasted decades.
Gambierites stood in line for hours in the oldest of deadlocks: sheer stubbornness meets an apathetic lack of planning.
I've got a great story, and I'll tell it tonight. But let's be realistic. This was principled, but not heroic.
Can't wait for the story, Joe. Is it okay if I consider you a hero?
Love,
tommyspoon
G-G-G was a midwife. She knew all about patience.
Like Spoon, I'm still very proud of you in Gambier. The incompetants lost - the whole world knows about the 5 machines reduced to two.
Do they really, Lemming?
Because we started the day, like we start every election day, with 2.
Now that's interesting - I heard several reports which stated that you had five machines in Knox County four years ago.
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