Voting Fraud
Like the good citizen I am, I registered to vote in my new city. I had to register by a certain date to be able to vote this November. I conscientiously did this and got excited to throw my vote away on a third party like usual. Yay! I love empty rituals that have no bearing on our sham of a representative democracy!
So I was excited when I got something in the mail from the voting people. It was my form. Returned. Why? The names in boxes 3 and 12 didn’t match. Now despite my hometown and ethnic background, I generally don’t make a habit of voting fraud, so I imagined I made some error. Box 3 was my name printed neatly (well, as neatly as I can muster), and box 12 my signature. Huh? That’s my signature, that’s my name. Same thing….
Oh.
My signature is so bad that they don’t think it looks like my name. Which, to be fair to them, it looks more like JVB~~to. Hey, I have a long name and only so much time to sign things. But those ARE the main letters in my name!
So do I falsify my signature, and then remember to sign it exactly that way when I vote? It won’t match the signature on my photo id or anything else. Aren’t I the authority on my own signature? Apparently not. So I guess I will be sitting out this election, sadly.
4 Comments so far
1. amy wrote on October 21st, 2006 at 5:24 am
This is truly bizarre and a bit shocking.
But I wanted to note that you don’t ever have to provide photo id when you vote. It’s been ruled unconstitutional a number of times. All you have to do is tell them your name and address, and they match it up with their list.
2. jennybento wrote on October 21st, 2006 at 7:21 am
yeah i am going to call them on monday and try and clear it up.
you see wht happens when you register libertarian?
3. amy wrote on October 22nd, 2006 at 5:22 am
haha, that’s probably it.
I’m sad/embarrassed to say I won’t be voting at all in the midterms. I was all set to do the absentee ballot thing, but it turns out to be a pain and a half. Before they’ll even *send* you the ballot, you have to get your application notarized, which costs a fair amount of money here. Not that I absolutely couldn’t afford it, but paying to vote feels wrong. Plus then you have to pay to mail it to America, and the absentee ballots always get counted last anyway (if at all). Bah!
4. jenny wrote on October 22nd, 2006 at 9:17 am
that’s so weird–i absentee voted for years…i never had to notarize anything. it must be the foreign country thing. would you be voting in shady politics RI?
I agree paying to vote does seem wrong.