Election Day

I did something today I've never done before.

I voted straight party ticket.

Not only that, we had a raft of proposed amendments to the state constitution and the county charter on the ballot, and I voted no on all of them. We also had something called "merit retention," which asks if various supreme court justices and appellate court judges ought to be retained in office. Consistent with my contrarian attitude, I voted no on every one of them, too.

We had only one non-partisan race on the ballot, for a seat on the school board. This gave me a choice between a man and a woman. What to do? I voted for the man because I know his mother.

Just before pushing the big button on the final computer screen that casts your votes onto a little magnetic card to be counted by a computer (we can hope), I got a screen with all my votes summarized. Wow. Every vote was a "Dem" or a "no" with the one exception of the mother's son. Very impressive!

It was fun! Brainless! Almost irresponsible! How easy it was - no need to think!

I know people who have voted that way all their lives. They are mostly Republicans, who vote like my grandmother used to vote. She'd vote straight party ticket even in a primary election, or so she thought.

I may have lost half my votes, but I'm not sure it matters much. I believe all the candidates are liars, cheats, and thieves because they've been telling me so for several months, so having a "blue" crook instead of a "red" crook may make no difference.

But it was fun, free entertainment for about five minutes or so.