Election Post #5 (written by Mrs. Nation)

Hello! I am Mrs. Nation. I was asked to write about my voting experiences today. I don't think they were especially unique, but maybe I can shed light on the increase in voter turnout.

About a month ago a nice young lady from the Democratic office stopped by to sign us up for absentee ballots. So we did. The ballots came, and they went into the pile of mail we will look at later, and that was that. But then two weeks ago, another person from the office stopped by and left a note on the door reminding us to fill those out. Dan was also reminded at church by someone who was volunteering to remind people. Dan filled his out. I wanted to push the buttons on the machine, so I did not.

On Saturday, someone stopped by to remind us again to fill those out and send them. Dan said he did and would remind me. On Monday, someone stopped by to remind to me to send in my ballot, and I said I was going to the polling place because I wanted to push the buttons and he didn't need to worry about me. This afternoon, seconds after I got home from work and was heating up lunch, someone stopped by, and I told them I was going to vote after my doctor appointment, and that I knew I had to take my absentee ballot with me and surrender it so I could vote.

So, that is was I did. I had to sign the ballot and write "Spoiled" on it. Then I filled out a form, and got ready to press the buttons, when I was told there were no buttons. There were only paper ballots, and I had to take my ballot to a station, use the felt tip marker, and fill in the dots. I was so disappointed. No buttons?!? So I filled in the dots with the marker, and took it to the scantron lady, who wouldn't even touch the ballot. She made me run it through the scantron.

Later this afternoon I was teaching a piano lesson when yet another person knocked on the door to remind me to vote. I told her I did an hour ago, and she was content with that and left.

I called my mom to tell her how disappointed I was about the scantron and she said the same thing happened to her, but she didn't get to scan her own, and was sad that she had to hand it to someone to scan for her. By the way, there were only about 10 people voting when I was there, and 3 in line, and my mom said at her polling station she was the only person.

At least I got to vote, right? Too bad they didn't have "I voted" stickers.