20 May 2008

[liff, or_politik] Putting It Off


1565. Yeah, we wait until the last minute.


To some, vote-by-mail has been around forever it seems. But it wasn't actually that long ago that Oregon had its polling stations too. Election day was a real event then ... watching the news, staying up past midnight in tight races as the votes were counted from the precincts.


Needless to say, election day isn't the house party it once was. Thanks to the cool efficiency of modern vote tabulators combined with the immediacy of having all the ballots on site at 8 PM, they usually grind these things out real quick-like.


But we still sit in for elections.


And we wait until election day to drop off our ballots. It's kind of like going to the polls used to be.


Now, in this age of republicans gaming every polling system there is, vote-by-mail, which I hated coming in, looks pretty smart now, and I'm happy we do it this way. I admit it ... I was wrong about this.


But waiting to drop our ballots until the 20th ... sorry to keep y'all on pins and needles about how this household his going to vote, everyone, but it's just like old times.


Happy election day.


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2 comments:

Dale said...

Ah, voting day. I somewhat (only barely) miss the polling booth approach -- the smell of old people, the sight of old people, the discovery of neighbors you didn't know you had.

The tradition of partisans taking over corners in downtown and hooting for their candidates during the morning commute lives on, but you can see it fading as the casting of votes now takes place over weeks.

Samuel John Klein said...

the smell of old people, the sight of old people, the discovery of neighbors you didn't know you had.

LOL.

I miss the experience of it being such a big community thing. It was a big event and of course, like I said, the thing about it being an all night TV house party as we watched the results come in was very cool indeed.

However, after seeing what a dog's breakfast Ohio and Florida have become, I'm 100% down with mail voting now. Just run it by the nearest library branch on election day, and voila!

The tradition of partisans taking over corners in downtown and hooting for their candidates during the morning commute lives on, but you can see it fading as the casting of votes now takes place over weeks.

Y'know what we need here in Ptown? A Speaker's Corner. Hyde Park Style. That'd be just the thing.

Tempus fugits on, regardless, yes.