Tales of a Shrink

I arrived at the polling place at 7:30, waited 90 minutes in line, and then voted. But it gets more interesting.

Michigan is a battle-ground state, meaning that the Republicans and the Democrats are trying really hard to get us to vote for their respective candidates. Often, this translates into supressing the vote for those likely to support the other guy. It's enough to make you want to give up on the whole "Democracy Thing."

Here's what I mean: Ferndale, the city that I live in, is very liberal. (For example: Our mayor is openly gay; The number one recipient of campaign donations during the Democratic Primaries was Kuchinich; etc....) So, in order to make the numbers more favorable for That Man, the Republicans have posted someone in the polling places with a list of "disputed voters." The list is provided to them by the Republican party, by the way.

This means that when someone whose name is on the Republican list arrives to vote, the Republican stooge stands up and says, "I challenge your vote," and then the potential voter has to swear that they are in the right polling place, and that they are who they claim to be, all the while the Republican stooge is reminding them that if they are not telling the truth they are guilty of perjury.

For the most part, this man sat at the table with a sly grin on his face, looking at all the names of people as they arrived, and checking his list. It felt like we needed the permission of the Republican party to vote. It was eerie.

And then the drama began. While I was waiting to vote, a woman wearing a fleece jacket with long hair arrived, and demanded to speak with the poll workers. She asked in the man if he was a resident of the district. He replied that he was not, and she cited the law requiring that people challenging votes must be "valid electors of the precinct," and then she called the police to have the ~~stooge~~ man removed.

At that moment I went into the booth and pulled the curtain, and when I came out the issue was still not resolved. As I left, a police car pulled up to the building. I don't know how the whole thing ended.