In Missouri, primary elections are open, which means that a voter can participate in the party primary of their choice (Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, or Constitution) or request a Propositions Only ballot. I was able to look up a sample ballot online and do some research to figure out how I would vote. There hasn't been much information disseminated yet about the three County propositions, but I did the best I could to figure out the convoluted language.
The election office had moved since the last time I voted absentee. Now it is at an auxiliary County government center in St. Ann, a suburb about 20 minutes from my house. (The area used to be a shopping mall according to Wikipedia, in the late 1980s one of the largest in the country before it declined and was eventually closed.)
Once I pulled into the parking lot signs directed me to the correct building, and there was a large pop up flag sign next to the door. I walked in, navigated through the metal detector, then asked where the election office was. An associate pointed me towards an office to the left.
Inside the office there was no one else in line, but I still had to navigate through a short maze of crowd control ropes to reach the desk.The clerk asked for my driver's license, scanned it, then turned a screen around and asked me to verify that my information was correct. She printed out a ballot, initialed it, then walked across the room to get a second judge's initials.
When she came back she pointed out the side room that held the voting booths. In that room another clerk told me I could use any booth I wanted. Because I had done my research and had my selections made the actual voting only took a couple of minutes. After all the boxes were filled in I walked over to the scanner and fed the ballot in. I could have helped myself to a I Voted sticker, but thought if I wore one it might confuse people the rest of the day.
It will be interesting to see how my votes jibe with the general population
after the election is over.
Five years ago today: Forward And Backward Or Backward And Forward
I get a ballot mailed, I think it's the easiest way to vote, and like you, I do my research ahead of time.
ReplyDeleteIn Missouri there are only a few authorized reasons to vote by mail...and most of them require you to get the ballot notarized. In my mind it's easier to just go there.
DeleteGood for you-Christine cmlk79.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteWe're waiting for our ballots to be mailed to us. I'm still not sure who I'm going to vote for. Interesting that candidates in Hawaii don't want to advertise that they are Republican.
ReplyDeleteThat is interesting about the non-Republican candidates. In Missouri, the front runners can't push that fact enough.
DeleteWe got our vote by mail ballots. We need to get of the dime and get them in the mail. The second proposition has me totally confused.
ReplyDeleteI was out at Northwest plaza last time. I forgot about my pocket knife. I had everything in the tray and they said no knife. Luckily they let me carry the tray with all my stuff back to the car so I could leave my knife in there.
You're right; there's been no 'educational' press about the propositions I'm guessing that will be coming out soon.
DeleteGood to know they're keeping the building safe from pocket knives :-)
Good for you! Well-planned, as well. We did the same here in Ontario.
ReplyDeleteYou are very organized. We get election pamphlets describing the ballot measures here, and candidates, although the languange in ballot measures or bond measures are difficult to navigate sometimes. We get ballot measures often that are citizen promoted through collecting the required number of signatures to get the measure on the general ballot but unfortunately most of these citizen group measures come without a clear funding or implementation stategy and make a mess of things. We do not have open elections in Oregon, so being unaffiliated, I received no primary election slickees, as I call the election mail from candidates.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me how each state does things differently. In the next few weeks we will be inundated with post cards touting candidates from both parties.
DeleteI get such perverse pleasure out of using slickees (election mailings from candidates) as trap liners.
ReplyDeleteNow I wish I had traps so I could do the same thing!
DeleteGood for you doing your civic duty. Happy we have this opportunity.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. It is a duty and an opportunity.
DeleteWell done for making the effort to vote, so many people don't.
ReplyDeleteVoting is important.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.