I cast my absentee ballot today, and, yes, I voted for Nader just to be contradictory. I had the odd timing of being at the Board of Elections at the exact time they were running a public demonstration of new voting machines. In New York, we’ve been voting on the same machines that sent Kennedy to the White House. New machines have been long promised (or threatened, depending on your perspective). Apparently fearing voter backlash, the New York City Board of Elections shied away from a full-on computerized ballot. Instead, the Ballot Marking Device is a clunky touch screen and computer ballot that looks like a 1970’s version of the “future.”
The paper ballot never entirely leaves your hand. You feed it in to the machine, like a Scantron test sheet from when you were in school. A nigh-on unresponsive touch screen runs you through the various contests and prompts you to mash your thumb closest to the candidate you hope to vote for. You might miss and pick the other guy, but, don’t worry, the clerk advised me. You’ll have three chances to get it right. Review your choices, press “done” and the machine will print little black bubbles next to the candidates you selected on the paper ballot. Unless it misses, or runs out of ink.
A switch to any new voting machine after 50 years is likely to produce voter confusion and long lines. These cheap and clunky “Ballot Marking Devices” only makes things worse. Look for them to really break down that special election on term limits we might have.
Should we have a special election on term limits? No! We had that election. Twice. Truth be told, I am against term limits in principle, and, in fact, I voted in favor of extending our limits to three terms in 1996. But I was outvoted. The people spoke. Move on. It is the absolute height of hypocrisy for Mayor Bloomberg and the current City Council to attempt an end-run around the people’s will. It is, however, disingenuous for the Working Families Party and others to narrow our protest to making sure that any vote on term limits is done by referendum. With the past votes in favor of term limits so recent and so overwhelming, why should we waste taxpayers’ dollars on another plebiscite that will produce the same predictable results? That money could be better spent on other things, like, say, new voting machines that work.
Finally, let’s just come out and say what we really mean: Mike Bloomberg should go away. We don’t need a billionaire to protect us from the big bad recession. Any asshole in a three piece suit could raise property taxes and slash services, which is all he’s going to do anyway. The very idea of a billionaire mayor, with his $1 a day salary, private jet and “financial independence” is corrosive to our democracy. Allowing ourselves to be conned into begging him to stay would be the nail in the coffin. Mayor Bloomberg has to go, even if we have to vote twice to make it happen.