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Oct 23, 2002 I took advantage of the early voting privilege mainly out of curiosity. The local media provided the address of the shopping center where early voting takes place in my area. It took me awhile to find the named shopping center because I am not all that familiar with this city. Once I found the location, I drove around a sprawling parking lot from various angles looking for signs to tell me which of the closed up stores (of which there are way too many in this part of town!) was the designated polling place. At that moment, some cell phone store was the only place displaying a US Flag so I pulled up in front of it. Eventually, I got out of my car and asked a UPS driver who happened to drive up next to me if he knew the location. A storefront still identified with the trademark signage of a Hallmark Shop is now the polling place. With the tinted window glass, I never saw the foot high signs saying “VOTE HERE” until I was on the sidewalk in front of the door. I got the impression that the election board would prefer that early voting reamin a secret. Strike one. The second I got out of my car, a woman dressed pretty much like the local beggars approached me. She didn’t seem to speak or understand English when I asked her if this was the polling place. She passed me a card with the names of all the Democratic candidates along with the offices they seek printed on it. I get insulted when people posing as citizens of the United States can’t speak English and I ultimately changed my intended vote for an important slot (one of those where back stabbing skills makes both candidates seem more like criminals than politicians) and selected someone who is not a Democrat. I hope the candidates on future tickets will remember that the official language of the United States is still English when they choose supporters to represent them in public. Inside the building, I was the third person in line. In the end, the short line turned out to be the only advantage of early voting. When I handed the registrar my card, she told me I was required to put the paper with the Democratic candidates’ names on it inside my purse, as though I were some criminal for carrying it. If they don’t want voters to carry literature, they should chase away the vagrants who distribute it outside the polling places. I am not familiar enough with Texas law to know whether or not the practice of attempting to influence voters near the polling places is even legal but I do know of locations where it is not. Strike two against the early voting system. My name and address was recorded and I was handed a plastic card to insert into the computer and unlock my ballot. I have no problem with that touch screen system of voting but I really would prefer not to have half a dozen people standing over my shoulder trying to see the screen while I vote. I’ve voted in a lot of places since the 1960’s. This was the very first time I ever voted where the screens faced the public and were not divided by either curtains or shields of a sufficient size to prevent anyone but the voter from seeing the ballot. I am almost positive that blatant disregard for the secret ballot system is illegal throughout the country. Strike three! Now that my curiosity about early voting is satisfied, I won’t be doing it again unless it is absolutely necessary. I wonder if the early votes cast at that particular location today are even legal, given the fact that anyone in the building with 20-20 vision and a modicum of curiosity could see the names of the candidates I chose. ------------ Anne Jasper is a fiction writer and author of many books including Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. You can visit Anne's homepage. Email Anne: DeliaGoodroe@yahoo.com Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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