Blog Patrol
From Thursday’s “Matter of Opinion” Topic: Voting
Lewis Henderson: I hate election time. I used to love it when we got to go to the polls. Now I mail in the ballot and wait for the election office to send me a letter saying my signature does not match.
Is my vote really secret if someone is going to all the trouble to match a signature? How many man-hours does that take? Isn’t it easier and less costly to have me going into the polls showing my ID and vote? Going to the polls is more personal too; we get to see our neighbors, it brings a sense of community together, all together for one cause.
My signature changes a lot and without a copy of the original signature I used years ago I keep getting stuck in the signature does not match circle. Tends to put me off on voting. Is my vote really counted or thrown in the signature does not match box with all the others voting against something the election office has been told to make sure passes, regardless of what the voters really want?
Is it too critical of me to think that since just about every other aspect of our government is an act of trickery it has not happened to the election process? If the party I want is not one of the top two my vote does not count, so why am I voting?
The people running for offices are usually seasoned liars, two-faced people with only one agenda to get as much for themselves as they can. Honestly voting for the same brand of losers over and over, only to hear you are the ones that voted us in, turns me off. As if I really have a choice. If I really had a choice the ballot would have a box marked NONE OF THE ABOVE.
Gary Crooks: You can still vote in person. Doug Floyd does it all the time.
ChefGus: Lewis, let me offer some reassurance that the voting process in Spokane County, as administered by Vicki Dalton’s auditor’s office, is perhaps a bit expensive and time consuming yes, but it is absolutely impossible to “game” with the exception of the abusive male or female that makes their wife/partner fill out the ballot the way they want and then make the victim sign it and send it in.
No one knows how you vote other than democrat/republican/ libertarian etc. … it is a clean process that runs very well and offers a process to update your signature if that is a concern to you. If your ballot signature does not match, the follow-up process is amazing to watch. I’ve been there for a hundred hours as a volunteer observer and am very impressed.