First of all, it has come to my attention that we have a foreign audience, with a reader in the U.K., 2 in France, and four pageviews from the Bundesrepublik Deutschland- Wilkommen, mein Kameraden! Bitte, erzählen mir, was sie denken über die Frühling Wahlkampf! Ich muss meine ND mehr oft lesen, aber ich hoffe das Merkel wird verloren. Linke-Grünen, ich hoffe!
Now that I'm through butchering the language of my forefathers, on to business. This past election cycle, (as some of you may know) I tried to vote for Rocky Anderson for president. I had to write him in on the ballot, which is admissible and I had submitted the full slate of electors necessary for this vote to be counted. A friend of mine did likewise, indeed we both ran for elector on the Justice Party ticket- he at large, I for the second district. Having labored over my ballot to ensure my (admittedly atrocious) handwriting did not preclude the counting of my vote, I was fairly certain I had met all the necessary qualifications to make sure my vote got counted. December first rolled around, and I combed through the returns, only to find that no votes for Rocky had been counted in the 16th ward of Beloit, where my friend Sam and I voted. Irate correspondence with the GAB and Beloit City clerk got me the list of all write-in votes. Aside from the depressing fact that the fictional (if awesome) wookiee, Chewbacca matched our tally, I learned several unsettling things.
My vote seems to have been counted at the local level, as one vote was recorded for Anderson Rodriguez. this is presumably mine, as Sam neglected to write-in Rodriguez, leaving the VP slot blank). This half-counted vote may have been one of the three listed "scattering"-i.e., insignificant votes in the returns, but it should not have been, by the GAB's own admission.
The GAB says a mistake was made, and my vote should have been listed for Anderson. Instead, the results show an inflated total for the "scattering" column, and omit Anderson's votes.
Vote counting is done erratically- 112 votes for Anderson were counted statewide, yet mine was not. Clearly, we met the requirements, but someone in Rock County just decided my vote wasn't worth listing.
Sam's vote has entirely disappeared. Having seen all write-in votes cast in our ward, there was one vote for Anderson-Rodriguez (presumably mine), but none for just Anderson. As many other votes were cast for legally unqualified candidates with no VP slot, this becomes really troubling. Votes for Chewbacca, Ron Paul, and Palpatine were listed on the write-in tally sheet alongside my vote for Anderson-Rodriguez, but no vote for just Anderson was present. Where is Sam's vote?
I have been in contact with the GAB- they acknowledge a mistake was made, and say they'll make a note of it, but can't do anything to record my vote accurately, much less tell me what happened to Sam's ballot.
If anyone would like, I'll post the text of our email conversations here, to reveal just how little is done about improperly counted ballots.
The excuse I've been given again and again is that this isn't likely to change the outcome of the election and is therefore a waste of time. I disagree- I know Anderson didn't win a single state or electoral vote. This isn't about winning, this is about exercising my right to protest- if not on our ballots, where may we speak freely? I felt very strongly that I could not vote for either pro-war, anti-worker, anti-woman, anti-climate, pro-gun, pro-austerity Capitalist candidate, but I also felt that I should vote for a competent administrator, rather than merely a doctor or dentist who shares my beliefs. I found my guy, did the groundwork, made sure that votes for my candidate would be counted, ran for electoral college in support of him, and finally voted, or so I thought. Some clerk in Rock County decided to correct my ballot, lowering the total for Anderson statewide, and, more significantly, destroying my rationally decided protest. And then there's Sam's vote.
Forget president- if you want to rule the world, just make sure you're the one counting the votes. This admittedly offensive squelching of my rights to free speech and voting is relatively innocuous, but this, and much worse happens in elections where it does make a difference. If I, a relatively well-off, white student with the time on my hands to at least try to figure out if my vote was counted can be disenfranchised, just think what the suppressors can do to poor, minority voters! As it stands, nearly twenty percent of black votes are retroactively invalidated in Florida, and just last year Waukesha county produced 15 thousand miracle ballots for Prosser two days after the election! Voter suppression is rampant, and has been systematically deployed to shift election results to the right. By some accident, they decided to go after our votes too- we didn't fit the profile of their usual demographic targets beyond being students, and our votes were only of value in the sense that they would let us hold our heads high with the knowledge that WE VOTED FOR AN ALTERNATIVE to war, greed, recklessness, and indifference. They have taken that away from us with seemingly no reason, or maybe not even intention. It remains to be seen how much they've taken away from others.
This may have been a accident, but that leaves us with the question of why does the GAB refuse to fix it, and as I've asked before- what of Sam's vote? Where did it go, and who sent it there?
I've contacted MSNBC and the ACLU. I further intend to speak with my state rep upon returning to Beloit, but I really don't think I'll get any answers. So much for my attempt to vote- guess I'm another apathetic, young, non-voter through the action of some clerk's assistant, not any action or inaction of my own. I'll keep on voting, but I bet I'm on a caging list now for daring to ask. Probably won't work. I'll see what I can find out by next election.
In dejected Solidarität
Genosse Graham
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