...::: Viridiana :::...

Election Day

Lots of fun today, my sister and I headed to the polls to vote, it was my first time voting in an election (I recently became a citizen). The experience was quite chaotic, there was apparent disorganization, most of the volunteers are in their mid-seventies and early eighties, so the process was a bit slow, they are hard of hearing and quite frankly don't have a lot of energy to manage the hustling and bustling from people coming in and out, trying to figure out how to vote. Lesson learned: we need younger volunteers. I will make it a point to donate some time in the next election.

The booths were pretty neat; they collapse into a suitcase, which makes them easy to put away and carry anywhere. Mental note: look up the designer. I noticed there were a lot of new voters because they were unfamiliar with the punch card ballot system, which has been used in California for thirty-five years. One peer kept trying to insert the ballot with the sleeve inside the punch card, I think he thought it would collect it, I watched him struggle for a few minutes until I couldn't bear it anymore and came over to tell him to place the ballot in the box, if he was finished. He felt a bit silly, and said "thanks.” In maybe twenty minutes that we were there, there were a few people who couldn't figure it out; it would help if they had someone standing by just to answer questions. On another note, I took lots of photos (some of which you see above, and by the way, the voting card at the end is actually pink, however it's color scheme didn't go with the rest of the photos, so it got tweaked in Photoshop), which threw some of the senior citizens off, and sparked curiosity from others.

Update: Arnold Schwarzenegger won the election. Tsk tsk tsk. :-( It is not all bad news though; Proposition 54 did not go through.