On Voting

[jamesq]

I voted this morning, and showed devoidofthought where to vote as well. nosarious appears to be missing-in-action, so I don't know if he go to it or not.

One of the things I like about voting is the whole casual-yet-still-important atmosphere that it has. Across Alberta today there were hundreds of voting stations. Mine was in the basement of K's elementary school. Others are in church basements, community centres and god-knows where else.

They're all staffed by, well, Canadians. Some are new immigrants, some are old retirees. Others are idealistic young adults. They all have a quiet enthusiasm about them that unites them in the pursuit of democracy. I suspect that's why there isn't as much voter fraud here as there could be (and it does happen, as recent Calgary civic elections will attest to). To be the sort of person who would screw with an election, your personality would be... out of tune... with the others around you.

So yeah, it had that weird sort of Canadian feel to it: equal parts gravitas and quiet reflection. I like it. It reconnects me to my countrymen.

Comments

dammit

[nosarious.livejournal.com]

I got to the wrong school at ten to eight. I got to the right school at 7:59. I got halfway down the hallway when the schoolmarm they had in charge of the polling station came out and said "Polls are closed".

As she said "So many people went to the wrong station". You would think that if this has happened before (and it has) they would find a better way of informing people... Say... posters indicating polling stations in the area at the LRT station or something?

I'm just bitter, never mind. I'll blame school for now.