Election Hostage

Tomorrow, I get to work at our local polling place.

I'll arrive at 6:15 am.

I'll take some catalogs and magazines to flip though while I wait for 30% of the 700+ registered voters in my precinct to show up and fill in their little dots.

I'll make small talk with any voter who wishes to chit chat. No matter if they are Republican or Democrat. I'll share my snacks with them and talk to their kiddies while they vote.

At 8:00 pm, we'll shut the doors and count the votes. And write down in quadruplicate all of the votes for Mickey Mouse and Al Gore.

At 9:30, I'll arrive home, and hopefully will not discover that the voters of this country have tossed out all the progress made recently in an attempt to elect right-wing nut jobs and pave the way for a Palin presidency.

I'm lucky in that I live in an area of highly educated individuals. In my little neck of the woods (approximately adding up to 16 blocks), many folks are professors at Penn State University. Dinner parties often include discussions on politics and religion (backed up with facts). These are voters that do their research -- well ahead of time, not just in the days prior to the election. Dream voters. Ah, yes. And most in this area are liberal. I'm loving that.

What I don't love are those damn fliers that are crammed into my mailbox each day. Often four of these things show up at a time.

Mr. Blah will raise your taxes
Ms. Blah will send all of our jobs to China
Mr. Blah might not be the most devout Christian of all time.
Ms. Blah will shut down our schools.
Mr. Blah will force homosexuality on everyone.

Whatever.

To put it bluntly, if you are getting any of your voting information from these fliers, don't bother to vote.

Its disgraceful that anyone would put their names on these fliers. I've heard better rumors from 3rd graders. And the photos! Each candidate looks as if they are on the receiving end of a phallic object.

Any questions about the candidates? Look for the answers on their websites. Can't find the answer there? Then it is unlikely that they have an answer at all.