Observing the Vote

  No long lines here.  One of the benefits of the small town.  I went to vote before lunch thinking that might help as well.

I also took my sample ballot with me that I had filled out already. 

With my memory, I just play it safe.  I have email reminders, notes on my calendars, cell phone reminders, and a string tied around my finger.

I had reviewed the races that I was interested in and made my choices in the sample ballot.  Then it was just going to be a simple case of copying the votes to the machine.  Simple enough.  Quick too.

As opposed to the few people ahead of me in line.

I watched these people with fascination.  Many of them were making up their minds right there.

There were questions about unconstitional laws, eminent domain, and sales tax.  How anyone could choose the right answer without reading up on these things is quite beyond me.

The eminent domain case will blow your mind with its unsubtle unethicalness.  A casino was trying to buy some property that had a house on it in Las Vegas.  The owner wouldn't sell.  The casino went to the government and asked for some help.  The government took the house and paid the home owner, low balling.  The government then turned around and sold the property to the casino at value making a bit of profit.  It used this profit as the rule allowing the theft of the house on the casinos behalf.  The government can take property if it uses it for public use.  The government used the money from the sale for public use.  Ta da!

Luckily enough people actually read up on the thing and voted for a change in the law.  Now the government has to pay the value of the property and use the actual property for the public.  The government can not be used as a middle man to transfer private property around.

Duh!

Anyway, back to the point.  How can you possibly walk up to the booth without some kind of clue?  My guess?  People don't read the sample ballots and don't realize there are other things to vote on besides the two Republicrats going for president.

They are probably caught by complete surprise. 

"Eminent domain?  What the hell is eminent domain?  I didn't know we had to study for a test.  Dammit!  Whose idea was it to have a pop quiz?"