Voting in Illinois
I couldn’t sleep this morning, but I still managed to stay in bed. I thought the polls opened at 7, but they actually open at 6, so I should have gotten up, but hey.
Yayoi walked me to the polls. She wishes she could vote too, but we’ll be happy enough when she gets her Green Card. We do punch cards here, which is fine with me. At the end you put your punch card in a computer which checks that you voted the right number of times for each office. Last time I skipped all the “vote yes or no on judges” and other elections I know nothing about, and had to reassure the guy that I intentionally voted as an “undercount.” This time, just to reassure us all, I voted Democrat on everything, and said “yes” retain all the judges. For such an important election, it is nice to please the computer. All the same, I verified nice clean holes on 4 and 16, Kerry and Obama, respectively.
Down in Urbana, Tim, like me, had merely to sign his name and be handed a ballot. But he also had to help his first-time voter friend past some election judge shenanigans at Daniels Hall.
“She’s a student voter; for various reasons, students are held to a higher standard to prove that they’re eligible to vote. Bringing a photo ID and proof of address is the rule of the day; this is supposed to discourage voter fraud, in some nebulous way that only applies to student (read: Democrat) voters.”
Long story short, Tim had to call someone who called a lawyer who verified that yes, a credit card bill works as a utility bill. Tim is far more stubborn than most folks. I’m glad he fought and won, but I’d be more glad if he didn’t have to fight.
