After all the hoopla about voting machines and pregnant chads and turning away voters that is going on all over the country our voting experiences was a bit of a letdown. We entered the basement room of the Beverly Library and were greeted by several elderly volunteers who checked us off their list. We received our ballots and were ushered to the “voting booth” (a row of rickety, sectioned, counters.)
I took my stubby golf pencil and began to fill in the little ovals. But what to answer? A..? B…? C…? oh wait… Kerry..? Bush…? Legalize Marijuana…? I had a hard time staying inside the lines due to Peter’s vigorous coloring.
All in all we went, we voted, we checked out some library books. What more is there to say?
Holy cow… I’m pregnant?!?
I saw that one coming. 🙂
You people up in MA have to fill in ovals? Where are you, in the stone age? Here in NJ we push little buttons that light up next to the names, and then at the end, press a big button to submit all of your votes together – and it makes a little “bbbbllllliiiiipppp” sound.
We have a similar machine to those described in NJ, but we don’t get a bbblllliiiipppp. I think I’ll write a letter to someone.
I remember going with my dad to Vote that we used the “Punch Card” System. I thought it was so cool. Insert your ballot in the slot, use the puncher tool (attached to the booth by a chain) to pick your candidates… and hand in your ballot at the end. Great Excitment to my young self. There was much disappointment to be had when in 2000 (and now in 2004) I discovered that MA had regressed to the prehistoric. Maybe I should move to NJ Or NC…
When I voted in Ohio back in 1996, I believe it was in a full-on voting booth. You walked into the booth and pulled the curtain behind you, then punched buttons in front of you to select the candidates. I don’t know if it was electronic – the buttons might have actually punched a tape or something which then retracted into the machine.
Voting in Beverly was an underwhelming experience to say the least. We didn’t even get an “I voted!” sticker! But I did notice that when I put my polling card into the electronic scanning machine, I was registered as #1093. 🙂
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