why does voting have to be so unpleasant?

[dancingleaf]

I started out in a bad mood - it's an ugly day and it's either raining or threatening rain.

I got into the polling place - which is in a hall attached to a Catholic Church.  This ticks me off because I believe voting should take place in a secular location. Whatever.

And they have got to be slow as molasses in there.  There's minimal line, only one person in front of me... and it takes her forever to draw a line? through the persons name on the voters list? really now? come on? Check the ID, hand her the ballot, draw the line, move to the next.

Then... they reject my passport as official ID because... although gov't issued... my  passport doesn't have my address stamped on it. It has my address handwritten on it.  But if I had say my... phone bill with me - that would be acceptable.

Fine.  So I pull out my driver's license also - Gee whiz, now that I have produced official gov't issued ID that is acceptable to them... she can examine it and then draw a line through my name, and show it to her companion and they can discuss how passports are unacceptable for 5 frick'n minutes while I stand there with my hand out for the d@mn ballot!!!!!

Vote. Return. They tear the little strip off the ballot.  I deposit it in the box and am on my merry way while they continue to ....

I hate Voting! I hate that it takes so long. I hate that they can't speed things up a little.  I purposely wait until the voting day and don't advance vote because believe you take your chances with advance polls that can be even slower. And I go at an off time. But it always takes way longer than it should.

Comments

[tangyapple.livejournal.com]

I still have no idea where my polling place is for this election. Nothing's showed up in the mail yet and the link for the Napa area at vote411.org is always broken. Last election (the primary in March) I had to go to the city department and stand in line with a hundred other people because they never mailed out my ballot, and that's how they handled it--by mail only. They never told anyone. Total B.S. >:\ And yeah, the last polling place was at a Seventh Day Adventist school--which is a religious school. WTF. o.O

However, no one's ever asked to see my passport, just the driver's license.

Yes, they do have to make it a big pain in the ass, don't they? It's stupid.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

Every US election, you hear those reports of 4-5 hour lineups with partisans challenging people in line. It's so nightmarish.