Godless Mom in the Bible Belt

I was going to try and do this in one post, but there is too much information to confine to one day so I'm going to break it up a bit. Please forgive me if I ramble, this is a subject I feel very strongly about so I am likely to give more information than is neccessary to make my point.

Texas has early voting, it traditionally starts 17 days before the actual election day. It is really cool, and one of the things I really like about Texas. Voting is one of those things that is difficult to do with a child in tow, especially on the traditional election day when the lines can be very long. Because of this, I decided to take advantage of the early voting offered by the state of Texas in hopes the lines would be shorter and Liz wouldn't get quite as restless.

After a two hour wait in line, it was finally my turn. I had spent the better part of the time while we waited in line impressing on Liz how important it was for Mommy to take part in the Democratic process, she was being very patient and calm. (Not easy for a 3 year old.) I approached the desk where they checked my voter registration card and they looked up my name in the book. I signed on the dotted line and was directed to a bank of machines to the left of the table. Now, this was the first time in my life I have ever experienced a voting process where those who were registered Democrats were directed to different booths than those who were registered as Republicans. I didn't think much of it. Although I have voted in Texas numerous times, this was the first Presidential election I had participated in in the state and I thought it was something particular to Texas.

The booth I was directed to contained an Eslate voting machine. I was first directed to cast my vote for President. I chose John Kerry. I was then asked to vote for the other positions up for election at the time. For the first time in my entire life I cast my vote for a straight Democratic ticket.

I was then asked to verify the votes I had cast. I reviewed the selections I had made and although all the Democratic candidates for the lesser positions had been checked, the machine registered my vote for president as going to George W. Bush! I was a little taken aback, but I laughed it off and again cast my vote for John Kerry. Again I was asked to verify my vote and AGAIN it marked my vote for president as going to George W. Bush!

At this point (after more that two hours) Liz was getting restless. She started to pull on the curtains of the booth and was trying to untie my shoe laces. I once again corrected the machine and marked my vote for John Kerry. This time when I was asked to verify the vote John Kerry came up as my choice for president. I cast my vote, and bundled up Liz and left the premisis before she decided to dismantle the entire bank of voting booths.

Now, I'm not the brightest bulb in the pack and I'm notoriously slow on the draw so it shouldn't suprise anyone that I didn't raise a stink when this happened to me. It was only later that day, after I began to think about the potential ramifications of such machine "malfunctions" that I began to get pissed off.

I started doing some research into the issue and was shocked by what I found. On election day I hopped on the internet and began logging on to the myriad of sites, both Democratic and Republican, which had been set up to monitor election irregularities. It was then that I first realized that my experience was not unique. In fact, it was being played out across the country.

Tomorrow I'll blog about what I found when I looked into electronic voting.