Voting

I love to vote.  And in fact, I love to go to the voting place on Election Day.  I voted by mail-in ballot in 2020 and afterwards it felt like I hadn't actually voted.  The process seems to be important to me...

I walk in and go straight to a table where a election official asks my name, address, and birthdate.  No line!  Prints out a small slip of paper which I sign and take to the next table.  

That person exams the printed slip of paper carefully (even though he clearly saw the clerk next to him produce it).  He asks if I want to vote by machine or paper (I choose machine) and he creates a longer slip of sturdier paper which will record my actual votes.  No line!

I go to the machine side of the room.  No line!  I am amazed some people want paper ballots (no line there either).  I hate filling in little circles with a pen, but some appear to prefer that.  Which is fine.  I like the touch screen machine; it is so easy.  

I have my sample ballot all filled out at home.  I research every choice a week ahead, right down to School Board and Judge of The Orphan's Court.  Referendums especially; some of them are written to be confusing, but a little internet work literally explains each one sentence by sentence.  And I check the sources of the explanations, too.  No political party or "cause" organization sites; Newspaper "fact-checker" and .edu sites are usually good.

So there I am comfortably seated at the touch screen.  First choice was Governor.  And it wouldn't accept my vote.  Huh?  Then I notice a box that says you must view all the candidate selections first".  Oh, because of 3rd/4th/5th/6th party candidates, it took 2 screens to show them all.  Talk about the election system trying to be as fair as possible!  So I do that, make my choice again, and move on through all the various elections.

After I have voted in all of them, I get a display showing all my choices.  I have to review them and confirm my choices (in case I made an error in one).  Another example of the Election Officials trying to be as fair as possible.

My State (Maryland) is wonderful about election fairness and accuracy.  We have no "hanging chads" here.  

When I confirm my choices, the machine prints out the results and returns it to me on the paper I initially inserted.  I take that to the last station, where I scan it in.  It confirms my choices have all been successfully registered.  The person there gives me an "I voted" sticker.

I was in and out in 10 minutes!

But I want to say it wasn't always like that.  When I moved here in 1986, my County Government was majority Republican.  Even back then, they didn't really much like or trust voters.  My 1st couple elections, they forced all voters in my town (of about 30,000) to vote at one high school.  The line was hideous and it took 4 hours!

And they liked it that way.  They recognized that more and more people from the Washington DC suburbs were moving to the County and they weren't mostly Republicans.  They (we) were escaping the high cost of housing, higher local taxes, etc.

My own town basically exists as a bedroom community of people who commuted to jobs in and around Washington DC.   If you saw a map of the town, you would see a semi-circle with the flat edge against the County line.  Everyone wanted to be close as possible to work but in "one County further away", LOL!

The result was that, after 10 years, my County became Democratic-majority voters and Democratic-governed!  The voting situation changed almost immediately.  Instead of 1 voting place in 1 high school (in my town), they set up a dozen smaller ones.  And with more voting booths.  The voting line went from 4 hours, to 30 minutes, to 10, and now 0.

I am not especially  dedicated to Maryland.  There are many other fine places to live.  I'm here because my parents lived in Maryland (Dad's job sent him here) and I simply went to the State University (and stayed around).  But I'm glad I did.

Equally, I am sure that some States have good voting systems too.  But some don't.  If every State's voting system was like Maryland's (or at least my County's), voting would be a lot more easy, fair, and accurate.  And that would be A Good Thing!

Keep in mind that I am not praising the elections results (though Maryland is a solidly Democratic State) so much as I am praising the voting process it has established.  We did after all, elect a Republic Governor for 2 terms (sensible moderate and rational guy).

But mostly, I wanted to say what a wonderful voting experience I had today, and why...

Covid-19 Vaccination Shot

 I got my first Moderna vaccine shot today.   The Maryland State site never worked for me, but the Charles County one was a breeze to use.  I went to it, gave my address, it showed me the available appointments for the nearest County location, I chose the first available time (2:00 pm). 

I got a confirmation of my registration request at once and another approving my request and confirming the date and time a few days later.  I did a timed drive to the location yesterday (20 minutes and easy enough to find).  Got there 10 minutes early today with no problem.

It was funny, though.  The appointments were for 9 people at a time, every 4 minutes and I had the first time.  Cool, I would be in and out in 10 minutes.  So Imagine my dismay when I entered the building and found a waiting line of about 100 people.  I confirmed it was the correct line.  No one was moving!

But, HURRAY, promptly at 2 pm, the line started moving and I was in the vaccine room in 10 minutes.  There were 9 shot stations.  I didn't even have to fill out a form!  I got my shot 5 minutes later and was sent to a waiting room for 15 minutes to make sure I had no reaction.  

As I left, I observed that there was no line left at all.  Had I known, the secret would have been to arrive LATE!  I would have walked right into the room and saved 10 minutes of standing around.  LOL!  

But I was back home 75 minutes after leaving home, so I sure can't complain.  What a wonderfully smooth process.  They even gave me my appointment for the 2nd shot at the shot station as I left.  I'll have to see if there is a site I can visit to leave a very positive comment on my experience.