I took part in the political process earlier this morning, did my civic duty and voted. Yay me!
I went there with both my parents and thankfully, all of the discussion (at varying volumes) about our voting choices was done last night, so there were no arguments in the car ride there nor home again. However, Dad told us a brief story afterward that he considered amusing and I thought may have been seriously offensive.
In Minnesota, there are two new Constitutional amendments on the ballot: forbidding gay marriage and requiring a legal form of ID to vote. Obviously, we don’t need an ID yet, so since we were already registered, the three of us walked up to a desk, signed in, then went over to the table to get our ballots. When Dad got there, he put his driver’s license down on the table in front of the worker and she threw it back at him. Like I said, he thought it was pretty funny.
As for myself, well, I think I can understand why she would have such a bad reaction. If she felt really strongly about not wanting the voter ID amendment to pass, showing your driver’s license would be like bluntly stating to her face, “I’m voting against your strong beliefs.” (Meanwhile, she has to sit there and not say anything since that’s her civic duty.)
And it’s not just telling her how he’s voting. He’s making a physical gesture when doing so: putting his ID on the table in front of her. In my mind, that could be like saying, “I’m voting against your strong beliefs”, then giving her the finger. If that was how she looked at it, I’m impressed that she restrained herself enough to only throw his driver’s license back at him.
