Election Day 'N'at (pt. Deux)

OK, I did my public duty today and cast my vote for the people that offend me least; that, in and of itself, was no big deal. What bothered me was how I voted today: with them new fangled e-lectronic votin' devices. I was not impressed.

Now, I'm no luddite... actually, it would be very difficult for me to be a luddite and have a 'blog, wouldn't it? I mean, I suppose that I could type these crazy ideas and random thoughts down on a typewriter, send them to a printer, have the printer make about a hundred or so copies, and have them laying around somewhere for people to casually pick up and throw away. But the TribPM kinda has that market covered, so I'd probably just end up writing obscene messages on the inside of men's room stalls.

Well, I'd write more obscene messages. That is to say, I'd write more messages, not more obscene messages, although I suppose I could do both, as I'd have time and an incredibly filthy mind...

Where was I? Ah! The voting.

I didn't like it. It didn't seem real. Those old clunky, 1950s machines made you feel like you were voting. There was a satisfying *click* every time you checked off a name, and a reasurring whir when you finally registered your vote. The new machines have none of that... not even a curtain to shield you from nebby poll workers.

I understood the old machines. I knew that every lever I clicked advanced a gear somewhere in the blasted thing. It was simple, it was something that I could break into and figure out, not a black box filled with a mashup of software. Problems in the machines were problems with gears and levers, not hidden within massive amounts of code.

The whole thing lacked a finality to it; even my ATM gives me cash or a receipt at the end. This gave me blinky, flashy lights. I have enough things that go blinky and flashy, that I don't need another one. It was too much, yet strangely, not enough.

It's only been one day, and I miss those old machines.

Now get off my damned lawn.