The 2010 Vote: Post-voting thoughts
My effort to carefully consider and write about each race and measure on my sample ballot blew up in my face.
Though a good idea, I started too late. Plus, I just could not find the time. Between running, working (still full-time), walking downtown and to “the store” (aka, NewPi), doing whatever errands my parents have me running (which is apparently my rent), barely keeping tabs on current affairs, reading a short story draft for a friend, revising my own serious writing in time for a submission deadline, attending three football games, drinking and writing about beer, nursing our now convalescent cat, and hanging out with the homies, I needed to neglect “The 2010 Vote” series.
Having just returned from my polling place, somewhat appalled by how unorganized the situation appeared at first and how old the election workers were, it is now useless to write about my ballot choices. However, I have decided to punctuate the doomed series with some post-voting thoughts.
First of all, I was glad to be voting by paper ballot again. As sexy, efficient, and technologically advanced as electronic voting appears, it is, in my opinion, not trustworthy. For those who have not seen it, I highly recommend watching Hacking Democracy, a HBO documentary that investigated the e-voting abnormalities in 2000 and 2004. After having seen it, I approached the electronic voting machines in Orange County with great suspicion. With its optical-scan sheets, Iowa’s election system is partially electronic since the ballots are counted by machine, but there is a paper trail; physical tallying in the case of a recount is possible. I would much prefer hand counting, but that is apparently too much to ask in an age of instant gratification. (I am as guilty as anybody. I am now hitting the refresh button every five minutes or so on the Johnson County and Secretary of State election results pages.)
For the next general election, I will seriously consider becoming a Johnson County Precinct Election Official (PEO). PEOs are the people who work at the polling places. Contrary to my assumption, they make good cash: $10/hour for the first eight hours of work, then $15 for any hours over. But I don’t care about the money; I would love to be a part of election logistics. I think it would be very interesting, and patriotic, to go one step beyond voting to take an active role in the democratic process. It’s that voting romantic in me.
I did not vote in 13 races. Not a single Green was on the ballot so I did not vote in any of the races pitting Republicrats against each other or where local Democrats were running unopposed. For the nonpartisan office races, I was so uninformed that I did not feel confident voting for any of the candidates. All of them, I am sure, will be elected since the ballot instructed us to vote for “no more than TWO” in the two-person Soil and Water Conservation District Commissioner race, and “no more than FIVE” in the five-person County Agricultural Extension Council race. How convenient for them. There were an appropriate number of write-in spaces for each box, but I was too lazy to even contemplate those.
The big race in Iowa was for Terrace Hill — the governorship — and earlier today I was deliberating whether or not to vote for Libertarian Eric Cooper and his running mate Nick Weltha. Libertarians both appeal and disgust me. The basic philosophy according to Cooper — “as long as you are not harming other people or their property, and are honoring any contracts you have made, then you may conduct your life however you want” — is common sense and reasonable, but Libertarians are too economically naïve. They are laissez-faire, free market hacks who seem blind to the fact we have nation-sized, international corporations (which include those manufacturing and selling electronic voting machines). They are also apparently unaware globalization has complicated and/or compromised their economic ideology. Basically, I did not like a lot of what Cooper stood for, but I thought about voting for him just to give him two percent of the gubernatorial vote.
As I mentioned earlier, the magic two percent mark in Iowa’s Presidential or gubernatorial vote gives a political party official “party” status. The candidates for that party no longer have to collect signatures to gain ballot access and voters can register as members of that party. The Greens gained party status after 2000, but lost it after the 2002 gubernatorial election. So why the hell would I want the Libertarians to gain party status if I don’t particularly care for their ideas? Third party solidarity and to give conservatives a real option, possibly severing the right in (at least) two. That’s a dream scenario, which would hopefully lead to the Republicans and Libertarians working together to allow greater ballot access in an effort to sever the left.
However, I could not get myself to do it — even out of third party solidarity. Cooper played to the two percent vote, saying third parties have been able to push their agenda despite never placing members in office; the major parties pick up on the desires of large, outlying contingents and weave them into their own plans. Given that tactic, did I want to support the Libertarian agenda as a whole? Hmmm… Not really, so Cooper did not get my vote.
Though a good idea, I started too late. Plus, I just could not find the time. Between running, working (still full-time), walking downtown and to “the store” (aka, NewPi), doing whatever errands my parents have me running (which is apparently my rent), barely keeping tabs on current affairs, reading a short story draft for a friend, revising my own serious writing in time for a submission deadline, attending three football games, drinking and writing about beer, nursing our now convalescent cat, and hanging out with the homies, I needed to neglect “The 2010 Vote” series.
Having just returned from my polling place, somewhat appalled by how unorganized the situation appeared at first and how old the election workers were, it is now useless to write about my ballot choices. However, I have decided to punctuate the doomed series with some post-voting thoughts.
First of all, I was glad to be voting by paper ballot again. As sexy, efficient, and technologically advanced as electronic voting appears, it is, in my opinion, not trustworthy. For those who have not seen it, I highly recommend watching Hacking Democracy, a HBO documentary that investigated the e-voting abnormalities in 2000 and 2004. After having seen it, I approached the electronic voting machines in Orange County with great suspicion. With its optical-scan sheets, Iowa’s election system is partially electronic since the ballots are counted by machine, but there is a paper trail; physical tallying in the case of a recount is possible. I would much prefer hand counting, but that is apparently too much to ask in an age of instant gratification. (I am as guilty as anybody. I am now hitting the refresh button every five minutes or so on the Johnson County and Secretary of State election results pages.)
For the next general election, I will seriously consider becoming a Johnson County Precinct Election Official (PEO). PEOs are the people who work at the polling places. Contrary to my assumption, they make good cash: $10/hour for the first eight hours of work, then $15 for any hours over. But I don’t care about the money; I would love to be a part of election logistics. I think it would be very interesting, and patriotic, to go one step beyond voting to take an active role in the democratic process. It’s that voting romantic in me.
I did not vote in 13 races. Not a single Green was on the ballot so I did not vote in any of the races pitting Republicrats against each other or where local Democrats were running unopposed. For the nonpartisan office races, I was so uninformed that I did not feel confident voting for any of the candidates. All of them, I am sure, will be elected since the ballot instructed us to vote for “no more than TWO” in the two-person Soil and Water Conservation District Commissioner race, and “no more than FIVE” in the five-person County Agricultural Extension Council race. How convenient for them. There were an appropriate number of write-in spaces for each box, but I was too lazy to even contemplate those.
The big race in Iowa was for Terrace Hill — the governorship — and earlier today I was deliberating whether or not to vote for Libertarian Eric Cooper and his running mate Nick Weltha. Libertarians both appeal and disgust me. The basic philosophy according to Cooper — “as long as you are not harming other people or their property, and are honoring any contracts you have made, then you may conduct your life however you want” — is common sense and reasonable, but Libertarians are too economically naïve. They are laissez-faire, free market hacks who seem blind to the fact we have nation-sized, international corporations (which include those manufacturing and selling electronic voting machines). They are also apparently unaware globalization has complicated and/or compromised their economic ideology. Basically, I did not like a lot of what Cooper stood for, but I thought about voting for him just to give him two percent of the gubernatorial vote.
As I mentioned earlier, the magic two percent mark in Iowa’s Presidential or gubernatorial vote gives a political party official “party” status. The candidates for that party no longer have to collect signatures to gain ballot access and voters can register as members of that party. The Greens gained party status after 2000, but lost it after the 2002 gubernatorial election. So why the hell would I want the Libertarians to gain party status if I don’t particularly care for their ideas? Third party solidarity and to give conservatives a real option, possibly severing the right in (at least) two. That’s a dream scenario, which would hopefully lead to the Republicans and Libertarians working together to allow greater ballot access in an effort to sever the left.
However, I could not get myself to do it — even out of third party solidarity. Cooper played to the two percent vote, saying third parties have been able to push their agenda despite never placing members in office; the major parties pick up on the desires of large, outlying contingents and weave them into their own plans. Given that tactic, did I want to support the Libertarian agenda as a whole? Hmmm… Not really, so Cooper did not get my vote.
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