my experience at the polls

In Massachusetts, voting is a breeze, at least in my experience. You walk in, tell them your name and street, and they send you to the voting booth. Easy. In Florida, notsomuch.

First, you need a voting card. That isn't very hard. You apply, it comes in the mail. The hardest part is keeping track of it, but thanks to "I love to file" Steven, ours were safe and sound in the file cabinet.

When you arrive at your polling place you'd think you would need to give them your voting card. Oh no. They don't need that. They need your license. So...why the cards? Anyway, they slide your license through a card reader that spits out a receipt of some sort. The 80 year old woman young lady who was operating the machine was intimidated by the technology, that I could tell right away. The guy in line in front of me had a problem getting past her and so did I. But, I wasn't going to forgo my democratic rights. I stuck with it and she finally got the receipt to print that I needed to bring to another old biddy poll worker who took that and brought me to the voting station.

Florida currently uses touch screen voting machines. I read an article in the paper today that they are going away. That makes me sad because they are pretty cool and easy to use. You get a little pen and you tap, tap, tap in your votes. Plus, it is very quick. And at the end you push a big red, flashing button that reads 'VOTE'. I shit you not. It's a fun time.