The Culture of Voting
"The Culture of Voting"There are a number of different places where people go to vote. The places change from town to town and so do the numbers of places. Where I live everybody goes to vote at the town hall. The town, where I live is small enough that it only needs one voting location. On Tuesday, November 2, the day of the elections, our town hall was very busy. All day it was filled with people who had come to vote. Outside the town hall on the street corners, were a small group of people holding signs that were telling you who to vote for. Everyone could see them standing there as they came to vote. On the front steps where everybody was walking in and out were a few businessmen in their suits standing and talking to each other. While everybody was waiting in line in the entryway, there was a display for them to look at on how to vote correctly on the ballot. In the main room there were five tables set up alphabetically by last name. The town hall is an old building, but the inside was recently restored. The voting space is in the large auditorium - a big room with a balcony, a gleaming, polished wooden floor, and a small stage at one end. The recently painted walls shined in the morning su
Red, white and blue striped curtains provided the brightest colors in the room and provided privacy as each voter stepped behind the curtain into the metal booth. Most of them had coats or sweaters with them to ward off the chilly morning. Party representatives listened for each name and checked the voter off on their own lists, hoping to see that a lot of their party members had come to vote for their candidates. As I stood in line I chatted with one of my neighbors, with the owner of the local dime store, and my old guidance counselor who was working at one of the tables. Each voter gave their name to the registrar. A metal table offered space for the voter to mark the ballot, Plastic white curtains separated and defined each individual booth space one from the other. The only decoration on the walls were wooden and brass plaques listing the names of town residents who fought in each war of the past two hundred years. All was very organized and very businesslike. Everyone in line was a legal registered voter, so no one had to return to the voter registration table. Inside, the booth was like a small closet. Long folding tables were scattered around the room filled with ballots, books and voter registration materials. Yet here, everyone respectfully greeted each other and never mentioned their political choices. Not one person was discussing the main reason they were there. A mix-up with one voter required him to go to the registration table and accept his ballot through a different system.
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