I Voted For...

Well since Lounge Daddy asked me about my vote (which I'm glad I was just waiting with anticipation to tell my election story) I'll tell you all about it.

I WAS DISENFRANCHISED!!!1!

I always wanted to say that in the context of voting. Its really not true of course, since I'm fairly certain my vote counted, but since I may not have the opportunity to say it again I'll use it now. The one good thing about Election 2000 is that now every schoolchild knows 'disenfranchised' of course they also know about pregnant, hanging, and dimpled chads maybe it really isn't a gain at all. Of course the whole fiasco is, if I may so quote John Kerry, seared into our collective national memory.

Tuesday Mom and I went to vote, for any that may be interested I did not need any sort of ID, which was probably good for me in the long run because I hadn't brought any with me. By Monday we had basically decided on voting for Randy Stufflebeam. So we go and following the write-in instrictions on Stufflebeam's website we ask the election judges how doing a write-in works. They explained it to us, and then I explained it again to Mom. Now that we had the ballot figured out, we asked to see the write-in list per the instructions.

Ask to see the write-in list. If you don’t see the name Stufflebeam on the list, have the election judge contact the County Clerk to verify that Stufflebeam IS A WRITE-IN CANDIDATE **. Otherwise, the election judge may not count the vote.

We were informed that they didn't have one and just write it in. We told them that the instructions said that if we couldn't confirm that he was a write-in candidate that they were supposed to call up the Cook County Clerk to check, and they just told us they didn't know anything about it and to just write him in. Well thats what we did. And I'm fairly confident that as long as I did everything right that my vote counted since according to the Cook County Clerk's election website and Stufflebeam's Chart there were write-in votes in Cook County, I'm assuming some were for Stufflebeam, and I'll just accept that 3 of those were our family.

Now I do have to say the ballots we used were just awesome and I think they should be used everywhere. I can best describe it as a scantron ballot. You get a special marker and just make a line next to the name of the person you want to vote for. Its simple, and there is a paper trail.

Here's the explanation from the Cook County Election Site.

To vote, draw a line to connect the arrow’s head to its tail next to your selection. Only use the pen provided to you. You do not have to vote for every race. To vote for a write-in candidate, write the name on the line provided and make a line completing the arrow.


After voting, place the ballot cards underneath the security shield.

I do have to say I'm a little disappointed, I didn't get a security shield. Oh no! David Orr if you're reading this you need to get things better organized in my precinct.


Insert your ballot cards into the optical scan machine, one at a time. Your ballots will eject if the machine detects an overvote or other error. If you make a mistake or change your mind, ask an election official for a new ballot.

The best part of the day was of course not the exercise of freedom that is unknown to billions around the world, but the little "I Voted!" sticker. I took Mom's and I wore two the rest of the day telling everyone that I'm a Democrat and that I voted twice. It got a lot of laughs around campus from people as they walk by pointing to me and saying "Hey, Chicago, vote twice" or "Vote early and vote often!".