Public Duty

[cherydactyl]

I voted in the elections today (school board: two unopposed candidates, library board: pick 3 of 5, one county-wide proposal to fund new emergency radio equipment). I was the 6th voter in my precinct, and I voted at about 9:15 am. I was the only voter in the polling place while I was voting. Two precincts are co-located for voting there. As I was getting in my car, one other voter was walking in to the polling place.

Edit:
By the way, if you are a Michigan voter, you should know about www.publius.org. Go check it out. I'm the only person with my name in the state of Michigan (how cool is that?), so you can enter it and see my polling place and ballot (usually). The online ballot copy ususally includes links to party and candidate web sites and other cool stuff, when there are any candidates on it anyway. You can't see the ballot for this election. I guess my county and township didn't bother to tell the Secretary of State what the election was about today.

I see I'm not the only one who has a unique name. tlatoani, I checked you out and I see you have some library millages. I assume Prop A is on your real ballot too. ;-)

Comments

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

Thank you for voting!

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't miss it, no matter how "unimportant" the particular election sounds. After posting this, I bugged the staff at my daughter's school, then later the hygienist and the receptionist at my dentist office to all go vote. I'm still wearing my "I voted" sticker. :)

When voters stop paying attention is when something important gets slipped onto the ballot by someone who thinks, "the voters don't care, it might as well be the way I think it should be."

ALSO...

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

I received a package from you, and was blown away! Thank you so much for your sweet and v. thoughtful gift!

Re: ALSO...

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

:) you are very welcome.

[the_rck]

Drat! I knew there was something else about today that I'd forgotten. (I have an important phone interview in less than an hour, and I've been running around, gathering documentation for it.) Hopefully, Scott will get home early enough that we can drive over to vote. I can walk there when the weather's good and I have a chance to sit a rest before I try to get home, but the rain today makes that a bad idea, especially with Delia in tow (she hates the waiting and resting part of things).

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

I wish I could help. Tuesdays are one of our busiest days, and tonight is PTO elections, so it's even more so.

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

Hey I have an idea!!

[the_rck]

What's your idea?

It is likely that Scott will be home in time. I went to that website you mentioned (and bookmarked it!). It says our polling place is open till 8.

It's hard. I can *see* the polling station over at the school, but that's not where people on this side of the street vote. We have to to bit up Pontiac Trail.

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

I remember...I took you once before.

See below for my big idea, though it may be moot if Scott will be home for you both to go.

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

J will be 65% of the way in your direction this evening for S's soccer practice (6-7:30). He could possibly come get you and Delia and take you to the polls. He says he would be willing to do it even if soccer is cancelled for the rain. Work for you?

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

I checked our local website, and what I've actually got is the Emergency Communications millage (which is being hotly debated on the local amateur radio lists so I have no idea which side I'd come down on) and the Saline School Board (which I guess I'd vote on if I knew which were fundie candidates but I don't have a direct personal stake in because even if we decided to have kids we wouldn't send them to the Saline Public Schools).

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

(For the record, I never miss a state- or national-level election, but I'll pass on local ones if there isn't anything important up.)

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

It is, considering where we live. For example, none of the candidates for any township office are of the party I usually vote for. In fact, when I worked on a primary election a couple years back, I was told that over 90% of the primary voters in my precinct were for the opposing party. We're deeply unpopular with the township leadership since we broke our tradition of not putting up political signs (for the 2004 Presidential election).

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but you see what's on the ballot before deciding to skip it. Seems a sane way to do it to me.

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

Really? I know some people think the proposed system isn't all that cutting edge, but it does use and tie into the state system. The Snooze said that HVA is already using this very radio system outside of our county, and that here in their headquarters area they can't. Of course it also said VoIP was also considered (along with 6 other ideas), which seems crazy to me from a dependability standpoint.

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

Apparently, the new system (1) locks them into buying Motorola equipment which is more expensive, (2) is vulnerable to cellular service failures, and (3) would mean that if there's a failure in that one system then everyone is out of communication with each other.

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

J and I were talking about this since you posted. Publius.org's information is bad. I wouldn't rely on it if you're looking to find out what your ballot will look like. For example, it thinks we're in the Dexter school district and thus would be voting on the Dexter library millage. We're not. We're in the Saline school district.

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

I figured that out after he replied...it didn't realy make sense that you were in the Dexter library area, in retrospect.

They are usually poor or worse for local stuff. For state and national elections, their links to websites for reasearch are very convenient.

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

(And if we were in the Dexter library district, I'd probably vote the millage down. I can barely find Dexter, let alone its library, so I'm damned if I'm gong to pay for it... ;-)