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Writer's Block: Secret Ballot
Nov. 4th, 2008 09:41 amHee. I was going to post about this anyway.
Tammie and I planned to go vote "first thing" in the morning. Given our slugabed nature, this does not mean six a.m. But we got the kid up and dressed, and got ourselves out the door about 7:15, arrived at the polling place about 7:20. There was a line of about sixty people from the gymnasium--where the voting machines are--to the front entry door. A poll worker was standing just inside the door asking people which precinct (of the four in our ward) each person was voting in. Precincts 1, 2 and 4: go right past the line and into the gym; precinct 3: wait in line. Precinct 3 had even more line snaking around the interior of the gym, but we are precinct 1, so no waiting.
We got to the table and went straight to signing the book. Pollworkers gave Rosa an "I voted" sticker and teased each other about letting nine-year-olds vote. (It's her birthday! We're getting her a new president for her birthday!!) But of course she didn't get a ballot, only a sticker. I got my optical ballot, waited a minute or two for a free space at the table, and went to fill it out. She sat on my lap while I voted, made sure I had correctly filled out the form for the right guy (Obama, duh), and pointed out "you didn't do that one" for races I didn't vote in (unopposed candidate, or downticket state races I honestly don't have an informed opinion on, like Lt. Gov.) I feel a little guilty about not having studied the whole ticket, but chose to leave a couple blank this time rather than vote-by-party or vote-by-silliest-candidate-name or vote-by-gender or whatever.
Voted against the racist amendment (i.e. "English Only"). On the way to school later, Rosa and I talked about that one a little, about how it's "mean people" trying to hurt other people by making their lives harder. About 2004 when we went canvassing together trying to defeat another "mean people" amendment (anti-same-sex marriage amendment). She asked me why that one had passed. I said there are a lot of mean people out there.
Then she said I shouldn't say same-sex, I should say same-gender. So we had a bit of a conversation about the difference between sex and gender. I told her, "sex is what your body parts are. Gender is what your brain thinks you are. For some people they aren't the same thing." Then we talked a bit about how "other people" have opinions on what is right for girls versus what is right for boys, but that what mattered was what *she* thinks is right for her. I told her my own take on my gender expression, that "I'm a girl, so if I like it, it is a girl thing, whether it's cars or baseball or whatever." She said, like digging in the muck? We giggled.
Yesterday on the way to school she caught me off guard with a question/comment about abortion. She called it 'killing babies', which ought to make it obvious what side of her family had gotten to her on that one. I didn't have a really good response; I told her that it was a complicated issue that she might need to be a couple years older to understand. Talked to Tammie later, and next time it comes up we'll talk about the bad situations that women might be in, and how hard decisions sometimes have to be made.
Tammie and I planned to go vote "first thing" in the morning. Given our slugabed nature, this does not mean six a.m. But we got the kid up and dressed, and got ourselves out the door about 7:15, arrived at the polling place about 7:20. There was a line of about sixty people from the gymnasium--where the voting machines are--to the front entry door. A poll worker was standing just inside the door asking people which precinct (of the four in our ward) each person was voting in. Precincts 1, 2 and 4: go right past the line and into the gym; precinct 3: wait in line. Precinct 3 had even more line snaking around the interior of the gym, but we are precinct 1, so no waiting.
We got to the table and went straight to signing the book. Pollworkers gave Rosa an "I voted" sticker and teased each other about letting nine-year-olds vote. (It's her birthday! We're getting her a new president for her birthday!!) But of course she didn't get a ballot, only a sticker. I got my optical ballot, waited a minute or two for a free space at the table, and went to fill it out. She sat on my lap while I voted, made sure I had correctly filled out the form for the right guy (Obama, duh), and pointed out "you didn't do that one" for races I didn't vote in (unopposed candidate, or downticket state races I honestly don't have an informed opinion on, like Lt. Gov.) I feel a little guilty about not having studied the whole ticket, but chose to leave a couple blank this time rather than vote-by-party or vote-by-silliest-candidate-name or vote-by-gender or whatever.
Voted against the racist amendment (i.e. "English Only"). On the way to school later, Rosa and I talked about that one a little, about how it's "mean people" trying to hurt other people by making their lives harder. About 2004 when we went canvassing together trying to defeat another "mean people" amendment (anti-same-sex marriage amendment). She asked me why that one had passed. I said there are a lot of mean people out there.
Then she said I shouldn't say same-sex, I should say same-gender. So we had a bit of a conversation about the difference between sex and gender. I told her, "sex is what your body parts are. Gender is what your brain thinks you are. For some people they aren't the same thing." Then we talked a bit about how "other people" have opinions on what is right for girls versus what is right for boys, but that what mattered was what *she* thinks is right for her. I told her my own take on my gender expression, that "I'm a girl, so if I like it, it is a girl thing, whether it's cars or baseball or whatever." She said, like digging in the muck? We giggled.
Yesterday on the way to school she caught me off guard with a question/comment about abortion. She called it 'killing babies', which ought to make it obvious what side of her family had gotten to her on that one. I didn't have a really good response; I told her that it was a complicated issue that she might need to be a couple years older to understand. Talked to Tammie later, and next time it comes up we'll talk about the bad situations that women might be in, and how hard decisions sometimes have to be made.
