Vote Accomplished

Posted about voting yesterday, went and did the deed today.

Always get your voting sticker!

Having the choice of when to go, I picked early afternoon. After the lunch rush, before most people get off work. Worked out well, only one other voter in the place. The poll workers said it was pretty crowded at lunch, though. When I fed my ballot into the counting machine, it said mine was number 273. No idea how many registered voters live in my little corner of southwest Michigan, but that seems like a reasonably good turnout for halfway through the day. Probably helps that this is the nicest weather we've had so far in 2016, so people aren't deciding not to go to the polls due to snow.

Michigan has a voter ID law...kind of. After you fill out a little card with your name and address, the poll worker asks for your ID. If you have one, great, they scan it and off you go. If you don't, then you have to sign a form saying that you don't have an ID...and then you get to vote anyway. Presumably, if there was some kind of really close race and a recount, those non-ID votes would be reviewed closely. I approve of the system - it doesn't actually stop anyone from voting, while still addressing the concerns of people who are worried about voter fraud. (Which I personally think is a ridiculous thing to worry about, as Jon Oliver has nicely summed up, but to each their own.)

Since you have to choose which of the primaries to vote in, there was a stack of ballots at the end of the line for each party. Since I was voting in the Democratic primary, I got one off the (much) shorter stack. It was pretty obvious that they were prepared for many more Republican voters! The lady handing me the ballot did a bit of a double-take when she got my info, actually. It's a pretty deep red area out here.

Civic duty fulfilled, for now. Won't be all that long before the big voting day in November...unless you're watching/listening to political ads, in which case it will seem like forever.