One of the lasting images of "Election day 2012" will of course be the outrageously long lines. I remember 2008, I think I waited in line for an hour and a half or possibly two to vote. It was a proud time, usually I go off to vote by myself but I was able to vote with both of my brothers and my parents. It was a fun time, granted we had waited til election day so of course we were forced to wait in those long lines to make sure our votes counted. This time around we were a little more spread out, so while me and my parents went off to vote together my brothers were still at a job site somewhere.
My father currently signed up to get a knee replacement was allowed to go first since he did have proof of his disability. Me and my mother on the other hand waited in the Vorgon's cue a never ending serpentine of people. We went to pick up my mother slightly after 5 pm, and within 15 minutes got to a polling place, this year we decided to early vote just in case something was incorrect. By the time we finished it was well after 7 pm because they had required us to file through a room in the church building that housed the voted machines so that they could TRY and shut the doors. It was a futile attempt, people had been pulling up in cars ever since we got there and it was a good sized line(longer then we realized) when we got there. For a while me and my mother thought we were getting close when we made it into the hallway, little did we know it was more subway tunnel then it was foyer. we started joking after hour two because there was nothing else to do, we refused to get out of line we had toughed it out that long and if there is one thing I know I came by my stubbornness honestly. I believe when my father was finally able to retrieve us it was somewhere around 8 pm(might have even been 9 pm, I guess I could check my tweets from that night). And I was happy I had done my civic duty, added my voice to the masses and was prepared to wait til election day to see how it had worked out.
We all of course know how the election turned out, but what most of us were probably suprised(and appalled by) was the fact that HOURS after the polls had closed people were still in line. Most of them not because they had arrived at the polling place just before closing but because there were so few machines, poll workers, ballets and other vital accommodations for our fellow voters to register their voices that in some states and counties they were forced to PRINT OUT BALLOTS and have them shipped to polling places(What the hell) on election night. It was bad enough that lines were long during early voting, but on election night, when if early voting should have told you anything it was that people were furious and wanted to tell people in Washington exactly how they felt about the last two years.
It seems for the most part that MOST of the places where they were having voting issues were "swing states" so called because they can not be solidly counted one way or the other and as such candidates have to spend a decent amount of time wooing said voters to their cause in hopes of ending up at 1600 Pennsylvania avenue. There is also a fair amount of reporting that the counties that had extraordinarily long voting times may also have been democratically leaning, in places with republican leadership. I live in a blue county in an otherwise red state so I can sympathize with folks in swing states, but if it has not already been done I applaud and salute those who stood in line til after midnight on election day, for some it was an 8 hour wait that once they got out of line they found that their cars had been towed. This is the determination that most of us identify with being an American, sadly though it should not be synonymous with attempting to exercise your right to vote.
It is also kind of funny that in a lot of the post election autopsies how people turning out in such record numbers is being talked about. It seems we may have to pay more attention to the engagement of our growing population and possibly find new ways to accommodate how easily and quickly mobilized we can be thanks to the joys of social media. I would hope that in the future there could be a "secure app for that" so that when it is time to voice our opinions we don't have to worry as much about where we have to go to vote, only to make sure we go ahead and vote.
I'm trying to keep this post apolitical. I think voting should be simpler, I think registering to vote should be permanent, since the day you are eligible and should be automatically updated with a change of address. With the prevalence of smart phones I wasn't playing about their being an app for that. While me and a coworker spoke about it and he made a valid point about "what about security and people possibly hacking it?" We already seem to be having that problem, there have already it seems been instances of miscalibrated machines, voting machines that have under counted votes, and a lack of standardization. I think all voting machines should print out and e-mail you a receipt of your vote. Actually should be like a credit card transaction print out two copies one for you, one to be dropped off in a bin as an actual record of how you voted. There should also be (based on average expected user time per the length of the ballot) enough voting machines in an area to insure that the wait is no longer than an hour max. If there are 2000 registered voters in an area, there should be enough precincts in said area so that there are 100 machines, easily accessible, so that folks can come in and get out.
Saying were are better than this is red velvet cake vs donettes "DUH!" We claim to be this great democracy and yet some how when one side or the other doesn't get their way they either take their ball and go home or they scream bloody murder and attempt to vilify the other side as better crooks than they were(because of course NOBODY is ever innocent in politics). We are Americans, that should be more important than anything else, I truly wish people would remember that.
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