Secured Our Vote

There were a lot of people in line to vote, and it was early voting too.  Despite certain politician's claims about repression of voting, by all appearances, it looks like there are actually more people voting in this Georgia election than ever before.  My personal theory of this right now is the amount of candidates that are our there.  There are so many names on this ballot.  It took me quite some time to go over each candidate and do some research on each one enough to create a cheat sheet for Mom and myself when we go in.  We're generally on the same page with our voting, certainly in November.  Primaries like this, however, all the candidates are fairly similar and each largely believes and hopefully acts the same way.  So these decisions are mostly all good ones.

The sticker is dumb now though.  I miss the simple days when a sticker said, "I VOTED."  Because that's just what I did.  Who goes around and uses this phrase, "I secured my vote"?  I don't go up to people and ask, "Did you secure your vote?"  "Yeah I sure did," they respond, and then add, "I secured my vote!"  I don't think there will be news reports on Election Day about people securing their votes.  I believe reporters will say phrases like, "People are voting."  Or "They voted."  Or "so-and-so got this many votes." 

I mean, I get the sentiment behind it, as people are concerned about security or something.  It sounds like some sort of weird propaganda, and no longer just a fun reminder about voting.  And besides, it's not as if this sticker will completely calm anyone's fears about election integrity.

POLL WORKER:  "Thank you for voting!  Here's a sticker."

VOTER:  "That's fantastic.  One question.  Why can't it just say 'I VOTED.'  What does secure even mean?"

POLL WORKER:  "'SECURE' means to fix or attach something firmly so it cannot be moved or lost."

VOTER:  "So... I just fixed or attached my vote firmly to something so it cannot be moved or lost?"

POLL WORKER:  "You sure did!"

VOTER:  "That sounds fun.  What exactly did I fix or attach it firmly to?"

POLL WORKER:  "The box you put the ballot into.  The one that changed numbers to show you put something into the box."

VOTER:  "I saw that.  The number went up by one digit on the screen there.  That proves so much to me personally.  I have to admit that I was slightly doubtful before, but then I saw that one digit go up by one number and I'm like 'Holy cow, my vote is super secure now!'"

POLL WORKER:  "Sir, I feel like you might have doubts, and I assure you that your vote is secure."

VOTER:  "Sweet!  I secured my vote!  But hold on.  What about those other votes that are from non-residents, people who have already voted, or people that have passed away?"

POLL WORKER:  "Excuse me?"

VOTER:  "You know, illegal votes?  Are those votes secure too?"

POLL WORKER:  "No."

VOTER:  "Why not?"

POLL WORKER:  "Simple.  Because they don't have stickers like this."

VOTER:  "Perfect.  Let me secure this sticker to my shirt here."

POLL WORKER:  "Exactly!"

VOTER:  "And then I'll secure myself to the car and go home where I'll secure myself to my house."

POLL WORKER:  "Okay you can stop."

VOTER:  "And then I'll secure some food to the inside of my stomach for lunch.  And secure myself to a couch after that to watch the news about how all this vote securing is going."

POLL WORKER:  "Can we get security over here please?"

VOTER:  "You mean secure-ity?"

POLL WORKER:  "I hate you."

Maddie had taekwondo tonight with her leadership class and helping with younger students.  They're working with the kamas still, and that's winding down, but she's getting good with those, flipping them about in the air, catching them, and swinging them here and there.  It's a fun weapon.  

Still working on the spy series here.  We're repeating these series so much, and sometimes it can get old.  Spies again?  But I've been watching spy movies and television shows and trying to get into the spirit of things.  We weren't intending to do "Spy Games" at all this year, but if we're going to do it, we'll do it as best we can.  Maddie and the others are in an OSS Spy Camp, and it's a fun idea.  We'll continue the camp this weekend.  Meanwhile, we're also working on Summer Xtreme too.  It's going to be big, with our Gainesville event first, and then Midtown and Cumming on Saturday, and then Gwinnett and Braselton the following week.  I think we'll be going to Gwinnett's event, and maybe getting involved in the skits down there.  Maddie has been invited to perform with Team Edge at both of these events, and she's training for them on Saturdays, getting ready for a big performance.

School is winding down too.  Not long left for ninth grade.  It's been a good year, looking back on it.  Maddie got to go to some football games, go to Homecoming, be in a high school play, and enjoy a lot of other activities throughout the year.  She'll be trying a culinary class next year, and that should be fun.  But first, let's enjoy the summer, right?

We read tonight, and we said our prayers.  It was a decent day - a quiet one, but a decent one.