In Silverlake I have to go to an Atwater/Larchmont masonic temple to vote. So I was not surprised that the first pollworker couldn’t find my name. Finally he asked, “Jeffrey Van”? looking up hopefully. ”No, I’m Ronald and the last name is two words, van and Ammers.” He looked some more, then threw up his hands in despair. This attracted the attention of the pollworker sitting to his right. “Could I see your drivers license”, she asked me. I showed it to her but she couldn’t find my name either. So she gave me a provisional ballot. As I was filling it out, the lady to *her* right asked what was wrong. She mustve been a supervisor because she decided to look herself and immediately found my name. She instructed the first pollworker, the man two seats to her left, to give me a ballot. The lady in the middle took my provisional ballot and laboriously wrote ‘VOID’ on it. The man, using a ruler, carefully crossed out my name on the ledger before him.
I didnt see any voting booths so I figured I should use what looked like a voting desk. It would have been awfully easy to cheat and copy one of my neighbors. But my left neighbor looked like one of the 3 republicans who live in SilverLake, so I thought better of it. I always liked Gerry Brown, so I voted for him. Somebody had given me a list of how to vote on judges and I did that. Then there were the propositions. I knew to vote yes on 19 and did that too. I don’t remember too much else, it was hot and cramped and the light wasn’t too good. When I was finished, I extracted my ballot from the multiple choice test machine and carefully backed away from my voting desk. I looked to see who my right neighbor was voting for. Gerry Brown. Good, Silverlake seems to like Moon-beam.
I turned around. A young man slouching in a lounge chair nodded towards a machine in front of him. I assumed that’s where I should stick my ballot. It went in making a solid sound. The machine was in good working order. I waited for it to spit out a receipt, but none was forthcoming. I looked inquiringly at the slouched young man. “That’s it.” he said. “That’s it? I don’t get a receipt?”. “Nope, that’s it”, he smiled the way youngsters often do when they have to deal with old people.
Voting in Silverlake (part 1):
http://parabanger.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/voting-in-silverlake/
Tags: silverlake, voting
