Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Voting Comments
I finished voting this morning - with a much lower number of people in line than I expected - and noticed the same two things that always strike me when voting.
Yes, I know this ballot in Michigan is long - two sides of a pretty big chunk of cardboard. I also know it's not that complicated to fill out. It's broken into sections with names or yes and no for issues. Each section with candidates tells you how many you can vote for. To vote for or against an item, you fill in a broken arrow pointed towards your choice. Explaining it takes more time than just figuring it out.
I had two issues this year where advertising for the issue turned me against the issue. The only bothersome part of this is I'm never sure if that is bad (as in stupid) advertising for the issue or good advertising against the issue. The first was for a democrat, Carl Williams. Normally, I lean towards democrats, but in this case during the last "warmup" election some campaigner charged me down right up to legal 100 feet outside the voting venue and started pushing for Carl which turned me right off. I emailed Carl about this and never heard a thing. The remembrance of that "harassment" has overwhelmed any other message he may have sent since.
The second issue this time was dove hunting. Normally I probably would have voted against hunting the stupid little birds, but they have a most annoying commercial in support of banning hunting. You can tell the caricatures are supposed to be "normal" hunter-types. However, I'm guessing these "hunters" came right out of some model agency in downtown Ann Arbor or Troy. To me this shooting doves issue, seems like a complete waste of money and effort.
The bottom line is whatever your party, get out there and vote. You can even ask for help if the ballot is too difficult for you.
