Richmond voting
This is it -- Election Day -- and I'm all aquiver. Too much caffeine despite breastfeeding: yes. The thrill of participating in representative democracy: actually, yes. The possibility that I'm going to fight the good fight against voter suppression prior to the next presidential election: damn straight.
Now perhaps there is a logical and practical explanation, but hell if I can think of one. Here's the situation. Last year, while great with child, I waited with my fella for three hours along with hundreds of other people (many of them quite elderly, or disabled, or late-for-work, or just tired) to use TWO voting machines. Now this isn't at some podunk polling place, this is the annex of city hall. Sucked, but we waited, and we voted; but a lot of folks couldn't wait. Our neighborhood at the time, while frosted at it's southern edge with a wealthy district, is predominantly poor and working class, mostly African-American. Since then we moved to a cheaper apartment in a swanky neighborhood (saving 40% on rent; 50% on utilities -- bizarre). Now when I went to vote today, what should I find but six voting machines. Perplexing. I phoned the Registrar's office and found that they use a formula based on the number of registered voters in a district to determine the minimum number of machines to place at each polling place. What remains unclear is what determines a district's ability to go above that number. Are poorer (and largely Democratic) districts less likely to have more than the minimum number of machines? I'm on the trail of answers. As exciting as voting today was (Go Kaine!), I left the swanky elementary school, in the swanky neighborhood, surrounded by swanky people who didn't have to wait in line, didn't have to be late for work, and I felt a bit sick. This is a poor city, yet half a year in this neighborhood and the poverty becomes harder to remember. This voting machine thing has me shaken back to reality and I'm going to get to the bottom of it. Perhaps it's nothing -- but these days it seems voting issues rarely come to nothing.
"One function of the income gap is that the people at the top of the heap have a hard time even seeing those at the bottom. They practically need a telescope. The pharaohs of ancient Egypt probably didn't waste a lot of time thinking about the people who built their pyramids, either. OK, so it's not that bad yet -- but it's getting that bad." Molly Ivins
Now perhaps there is a logical and practical explanation, but hell if I can think of one. Here's the situation. Last year, while great with child, I waited with my fella for three hours along with hundreds of other people (many of them quite elderly, or disabled, or late-for-work, or just tired) to use TWO voting machines. Now this isn't at some podunk polling place, this is the annex of city hall. Sucked, but we waited, and we voted; but a lot of folks couldn't wait. Our neighborhood at the time, while frosted at it's southern edge with a wealthy district, is predominantly poor and working class, mostly African-American. Since then we moved to a cheaper apartment in a swanky neighborhood (saving 40% on rent; 50% on utilities -- bizarre). Now when I went to vote today, what should I find but six voting machines. Perplexing. I phoned the Registrar's office and found that they use a formula based on the number of registered voters in a district to determine the minimum number of machines to place at each polling place. What remains unclear is what determines a district's ability to go above that number. Are poorer (and largely Democratic) districts less likely to have more than the minimum number of machines? I'm on the trail of answers. As exciting as voting today was (Go Kaine!), I left the swanky elementary school, in the swanky neighborhood, surrounded by swanky people who didn't have to wait in line, didn't have to be late for work, and I felt a bit sick. This is a poor city, yet half a year in this neighborhood and the poverty becomes harder to remember. This voting machine thing has me shaken back to reality and I'm going to get to the bottom of it. Perhaps it's nothing -- but these days it seems voting issues rarely come to nothing.
"One function of the income gap is that the people at the top of the heap have a hard time even seeing those at the bottom. They practically need a telescope. The pharaohs of ancient Egypt probably didn't waste a lot of time thinking about the people who built their pyramids, either. OK, so it's not that bad yet -- but it's getting that bad." Molly Ivins
posted by Southern Bellow at 12:06 PM
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