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I just returned from the polls here in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where we are voting on city council and school board members and whether we should have a housing authority or not--not very life or death positions or issues.
However, two things struck me as I went through the process:
First, voter turn out was very heavy at my precinct which both surprised and gratified those working the polls.
Second, we used Diebold voting machines for the first time and MANY people were expressing their misgivings about the security of the system and were asking who made the decision to have electronic voting machines in general and ones with no way to verify the vote with paper output in particular.
It is obvious why I was surprised about turn out as such elections typically don't draw crowds; however, I was pleased because I think that this signals how restive voters are, how tenuous they feel that their rights in our republic are these days because as we walked into the church to vote and then as we walked out to our cars, we had to pass the crowd of people handing out fliers for the various candidates and issues. These people would thank us for taking the time to vote on such a beautiful spring day. And voter after voter commented that they would not have missed voting for anything! Trust me, this is not typical! I am looking forward to the returns tonight to see if this was true at other precincts.
My surprise at the response to the Diebold machines derives from where I vote: At what is probably the wealthiest and most religiously and politically conservative precinct in the city. The parking lot at Galilee Episcopal Church (where we vote) was full of expensive cars and SUVs and even an array of Hummers, many still with Bush Cheney stickers from the last election. These are the big Pat Robertson supporters, the wealthy and elite of the city. For these people to be expressing concern about Diebold blew me away!
My precinct may just be an anomaly. I sure hope not and I shall be interested to hear how the elections went today in other parts of the city, state, and nation.
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