[LMB] OT: Voting was all-purpose open letter

[Peter H. Granzeau]

At 05:53 AM 11/6/2007, queenortart wrote:
> >
> > Interestingly, with the advent of computerised voting it is becoming
> > almost impossible to register an informal vote - you have to choose
> > someone on the screen or you can't finish. I guess you could just go
> > through the motions but not actually touch the screen at all.
>
>I am concerned that once computerised voting comes in that they will make it
>impossible to spoil your ballot paper, which is what I've done for about the
>last 15 years of elections.

Although we have a paper ballot, it is heavy, nearly card stock, and 
it is marked with a felt-tip pen and fed into a scanner, which will 
reject any spoiled ballots.  You can always ignore all of the listed 
candidates, and write in a name, however, and that name isn't 
scanned, so you may vote for Mickey Mouse (I knew a guy who worked 
for years as a poll worker, and he once told me the worst write in 
possible, but I have forgotten what it was.

>It's suprising how long it takes to write "I'm not voting for any of this
>b*****ds, but I still wish to exercise my democratic right to be counted" on
>the ballot paper with a stubby pencil :)

I once wrote in a vote for "A**h***s All".

And I have more than once voted "no" on all referendum questions and 
left all of the office votes blank.


-- 
Regards, Pete
pgranzeau at cox.net