Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Election Day
They moved my polling place again. Last time the polls for my district was Fountain of Life Church. For today's primaries they moved it to Stapley Drive and a little further away, to St. Luke's Lutheran Church. Unfortunately, this was right next door to Mesa Southern Baptist Church, where the polls for another district were. Naturally people were hitting the wrong church as often as not; this puzzled the people at MSBC, who were apparently unaware that the "other" polls was right next door. Yes, elections here in the East Valley almost always take place in church buildings. Why? Probably because there are a lot of 'em - more so than there are other public buildings - and they're generally not otherwise in use on Tuesdays. It certainly clashes with my early memories of Election Day, when the voting booths would be set up in the front hallway of DeLong Elementary School, and you might see your parents or the parents of a friend coming in to vote as you were lining up for the cafeteria. It gave the kids an early exposure to voting, and made it seem part of everyday life. I think that's why I prefer going down to the polls over voting by mail, even though it involves getting up early and running the gauntlet of the last-minute campaigners in the parking lot. For one thing, going to the polls in person and seeing some of the other people who've turned out to vote can convince you of your need to continue voting. For example, I spotted a truck in the parking lot with a Boycott France bumpersticker. Did these people know what a boycott was? I wondered. What products had they previously been buying from France that they were now doing without, in order to use their economic clout to convince France to stop.... doing something. Being French, I suppose.
I'm a registered Independant; we've been allowed to vote in the primaries in Arizona since 2000. We do, however, have to pick one party's ballot - we can't vote willy-nilly across the boundaries. This is somewhat controversial, but in my district the winner of the Republican primary usually runs unopposed in the secondary election, meaning that without a vote in the primaries I'd have no voice in who represents me. OTOH, I don't want to join the Arizona Republican party just to vote in the primaries, because as a single female professional and a pagan, I don't feel my liberties and interests are high on their list of priorities. Yes, flawed though the two-party system may be, a one-party system sucks rocks.
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They moved my polling place again. Last time the polls for my district was Fountain of Life Church. For today's primaries they moved it to Stapley Drive and a little further away, to St. Luke's Lutheran Church. Unfortunately, this was right next door to Mesa Southern Baptist Church, where the polls for another district were. Naturally people were hitting the wrong church as often as not; this puzzled the people at MSBC, who were apparently unaware that the "other" polls was right next door. Yes, elections here in the East Valley almost always take place in church buildings. Why? Probably because there are a lot of 'em - more so than there are other public buildings - and they're generally not otherwise in use on Tuesdays. It certainly clashes with my early memories of Election Day, when the voting booths would be set up in the front hallway of DeLong Elementary School, and you might see your parents or the parents of a friend coming in to vote as you were lining up for the cafeteria. It gave the kids an early exposure to voting, and made it seem part of everyday life. I think that's why I prefer going down to the polls over voting by mail, even though it involves getting up early and running the gauntlet of the last-minute campaigners in the parking lot. For one thing, going to the polls in person and seeing some of the other people who've turned out to vote can convince you of your need to continue voting. For example, I spotted a truck in the parking lot with a Boycott France bumpersticker. Did these people know what a boycott was? I wondered. What products had they previously been buying from France that they were now doing without, in order to use their economic clout to convince France to stop.... doing something. Being French, I suppose.
I'm a registered Independant; we've been allowed to vote in the primaries in Arizona since 2000. We do, however, have to pick one party's ballot - we can't vote willy-nilly across the boundaries. This is somewhat controversial, but in my district the winner of the Republican primary usually runs unopposed in the secondary election, meaning that without a vote in the primaries I'd have no voice in who represents me. OTOH, I don't want to join the Arizona Republican party just to vote in the primaries, because as a single female professional and a pagan, I don't feel my liberties and interests are high on their list of priorities. Yes, flawed though the two-party system may be, a one-party system sucks rocks.
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