Early Voting

I sat down with my 4, 11 x 17 inch page election ballot last night and started voting. Luckily for me I live in a civilized state that allows mail-in and drop-off ballots so I don't have to stand in line to fill out my choices for president, state constitutional amendments, and whether or not a historic district should be created in my town.

However, in this electronic age, I find the paper ballot a historic icon. This is a world where places like India vote by electronic ballot and the US just can't figure it out.

When I was in Bhutan and Nepal earlier this year both countries held their first democratic elections. I spent some time talking to the UN Election Observers I met and I learned that:

India uses electronic voting machines successfully. They machines were lent to Bhutan and used successfully. Although I'm not clear on how they were used in places with no electricity. Nepal used a paper ballot, at least out in the country side where I was at the time, but they were at least given a stamp and didn't have to shade in boxes (like I do) and they only had to vote for a party. Granted they had the choice of 54 parties, but only one vote.

The UN Electrion Observers were in the US for the 2004 election and they declared that the election was not on the up and up. Okay, believable, but a little embarrassing that the flagship of democracy can't hold an election that passes international scrutiny with paper ballots while 2nd world countries are using electronic voting.

I have a dream that someday we will sit down at our computers and vote via the internet. Until then, I at least got to enjoy a glass of wine while casting my ballot. And believe me, the wine made the constitutional amendments easier to understand!

Good luck to all of you who have to queue up. You're in my thoughts.