And You Think These Votes Will Be Counted?

Yesterday was our mid-term election day, my opportunity to cast my vote so that my voice can be heard.  My dad was a Korean War Veteran and instilled the importance of voting in all of my siblings and me.  He taught us that voting is our obligation to our country and ourselves because it's a freedom that so many troops fought and died to secure for future generations like me.

I always vote because of my father's passion for this country and his belief in freedom.

I believe in a Democratic Society and know that casting my vote is my contribution to democracy.  I take voting seriously.  It's my right as an American to have my votes counted.

My voting experience was uneventful, initially.  We have paper ballots in my town, something that I always feel better about using over the electronic voting machines or chad type ballots.  I am of the belief that the paper ballots are harder to tamper and allow for cheating; whereas electronic and chad type ballots leave a lot of opportunity for result discrepancies.

I filled in my ballot with my choices and headed for the checkout line.  The line was backed up, no one was moving.  I looked over and saw the ballot box OPEN with ballots all over the floor.  A policeman was standing at the ballot box, not even phased that all the previously cast ballots by other citizens of my town were all over the floor.  I was appalled.  How could this be happening?!

I heard one worker say in a matter of fact way, "Oh, the machine keeps getting jammed."  I was even more upset hearing these words.  How often has this happened throughout the day?  Why aren't these votes being treated like gold bars and under heavy guard?  We have troops dieing in other countries to secure foreign peoples right to vote ... what is wrong with this picture?

Finally, the ballot collecting machine was "working" again; the line began to move.   That's when I heard one of the Poll workers say, "HA HA HA... And you think these votes will be counted?!  HA HA HA."

I didn't think this was very funny.  Not even the police officer standing on duty next to the ballot box seemed to be startled by this woman's comment.  To me with all the corruption around voting and stolen elections, even if this woman was just joking, what she had said in a voting location was akin to someone joking about having a bomb while standing in an airport screening line.

All afternoon I was bothered by this scene at the polling location, wondering if votes had been compromised.  If our ballot boxes are old and keep getting jammed, fix the boxes or get new ones.  I did call and complain to a hotline.  It was unnerving, especially when a poll worker was joking about votes being counted during a time when stolen elections are becoming the norm.