Let's talk about today. We had a primary election today. Why do people dislike voting and we have low turn out? There were 21 things to vote for on the ballot, five had more than one candidate running for office. In this area you had to declare what ballot you wanted to have if you were an independent so I picked Republican. There was one slot I did a write in candidate because only one person was in the category and I didn't want to leave it blank. It was for Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Except for a Senate race and three congressional races, not a lot of reasons for the masses to come out in vote. I know it sounds sacrilegious, but we had a primary here a few months ago and from what I understood from the voting pamphlet I got at the time and verified by the county, that election wasn't in my district.

What about voter ID we've been hearing so much about? First let's talk about where I had to vote. It was a school, of course, and I walked to the polling place from my job. Thank goodness for GPS on my PADD. It took me 20 minutes to walk there, and at 7am it was surprisingly hot. When I got to the school I saw all the signs showing were voters were supposed to go, but my question would be why would you have voter park in the parking lot but to get to the auditorium where you actually voted, you had to walk over 150 yards? There were buildings closer that might have had better accommodations. Another thing I found odd was when you got to the auditorium, there were two folded sings, one in English and Spanish, indicating it was the spot but when I arrived the door wasn't opened, no American flag flying outside of the place, so other than the two sings there wasn't an indication it was the place or that anyone was in the place. To add to the confusion, there were students hanging outside of the auditorium. Nothing says welcome like a bunch of teenage girls hanging in front of an auditorium on smartphones looking at you like you are a pervert. I'm sure it didn't help that I was trying to get my voter ID card and license out of my wallet. The scene looked like a dirty old guy trolling a school looking to buy some young girl for something.

A volunteer opened the door and welcomed me in and when I got in it looked like an auditorium, meaning I saw nothing indicating it was a polling place. It took me a few seconds before I saw the tables for the volunteers and the little ballot booths.

Now for the voter ID. I didn't realize this before I left for work, but my driver's license has my old address on it. The voter ID has my current address. The information from the county was very clear, what was on my ID had to match the voter ID address. It's weird because the information says I can use a US passport as ID but it doesn't have an address on it but does have my location as being in California. After I got there I realized I didn't have anything with my correct address. I dreaded the thought of having to walk home in the heat then back again just to vote, but I hoped for the best.

No crowd at 8am so I handed the first volunteer my voter ID card and driver's license. She looked at the voter ID and found my name on the list. She looked at my driver's license to verify things, stopped for a few seconds, then handed both over to me. No questions about the mismatched addresses. Mind you, this was early in the day for voting, so there wasn't a crowd nor had there been a crowd (I found out later I was the 3rd person to vote at the auditorium) so all the warnings, at least in this state, about making sure everything matched up and how protection from voter fraud was going to be strictly enforced seemed a bit of a bust for me. What seemed most confusing to the volunteers was figuring out what ballot I should get since I was an independent. Oh and the second was finding me in the second book they had to check me off in. I had to help them find my name.

Not a bad voting day but I wonder if there were people who had problems because of mismatched addresses. I wonder if I was 'lucky' or were all the warnings about matching residence incorrect. I guess I will have to follow coverage on the local news to find out about that.