Junto Boys

NEAL BOORTZ DESCRIBES HIS VOTING EXPERIENCE

At my polling station (the local fire station) there was nowhere to park. Inside there were only 3 people voting, including me, and about 8 poll workers parked in all the parking spaces. I was handed a paper ballot and was asked "Paper ballot?" as if I was supposed to understand that I had a choice. I did not bother asking what the choice was. (Turns out there were also 2 touch-screen machines, gently used.) No wonder there are so many more early ballots and absentee ballots being cast.

I had a bit of a problem voting yesterday. I showed up when the polls opened. When I finally got to the check-in table the computer would not allow me to cast a vote. I later discovered that somehow my voter registration had been changed from my residence address to my work address. Something had changed since the 2004 election ... but I can't figure out what it was. At any rate, I went back after the show, cast a provisional ballot, and changed my registration. Problem solved .... unless someone sees fit to change my registration without my knowledge or consent again.

More amazing was my experience at the polling place. It was a lesson in basic government incompetence. Let me try to set the scene.

After you filled out the voter information sheet you were directed to one of two tables. One table was labeled "A - L" The other table "M - Z". There were two touch-screen computers at each table. Poll workers would use these computers to check in the voters and give them their access cards for the voting machines.

Though there were two computer touch-screens at the A table, only one was being used. Both screens at the M table were in use. To make matters worse, the two ladies running the screens on the M table were working very efficiently, while the woman at the A table looked like she had never seen a computer before in her life. In no time the line at the A table was snaking out of the door and down the hallway, while the line at the M table was .... well, there was no line. The two ladies there had nothing to do.

I just couldn't watch this idiocy without saying something, so I got out of line and went inside to find the poll manager. I said "Look, you have two women sitting at this table doing nothing. You have an empty computer screen at the A table. Why not let one of these ladies work that screen to see if you can shorten that line?" She just looked at me with a blank stare. Finally she said "Well, you would have to wait to vote anyway! See that line for the voting machines?" At this point one of the two ladies working the M table said "We can check those people in here!" Again ... blank stare from the poll manager. "Can you let some of the people in that line come over here to be checked in?" I asked? Blank stare. But finally the light bulb went on and she announced that people with the A - L names could go to the M - Z table to check in.

As the line was shifting I heard a woman say "This is what it's going to be like with government health care."

Exactly right.