November 21, 2002
Went out and voted on the 5th. It's not like I had anything better to do. Choices were pretty limited -- the only Libertarian on the ticket was running for governor, and he wanted to privatize the public school system. Sorry, but that's one of the few things the government's supposed to do. I know it wouldn't happen, even if he somehow got elected, but he basically lost all credibility there.
Anyway, since I'm officially in East Liberty I voted in East Liberty. I figured it'd be a good experiment, since blacks are always complaining about how they're kept away from the polls and this neighborhood has a high proportion of black people. Know what I saw? Nothing. The only problem I had with it was that directions to the polling place weren't explicitly clear when I got to the building. But if I can figure it out (ask the guy at the door for help) anybody can.
Of course, nobody complained about things like that in this election, probably because only about 3 million people turned out statewide. Seems like the only thing holding people back from voting is indifference.
I do have one question, though, that I'll probably have to go look up an answer to: How close to the polling place are people allowed to hand out flyers, and that kind of stuff? In Ohio I'm pretty sure it was 1000 feet, but walking to the place I passed about half a dozen Rendell For Governor signs, and a woman at the door was handing out leaflets telling me who the Democrats were so I could vote for them. Granted nobody tried to follow me into the booth, but that seems just a bit close to me.
