You may never hear another rant from Faith - I just don't usually do this BUT tonight you're getting it.
Yesterday our local paper, the Springfield Newsleader ran this article (http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080130/NEWS06/801300416/1007/NEWS01)
entitled "Big Turnout Expected for Super Tuesday".
In the article they said that monitors that are called challengers will be at the polling places taking note of who takes which ballot, either republican or democrat and recording that.
Here is the quote from the article:
"Both local Republican and Democratic party committees plan to send monitors, known in the law as "challengers," to some polling stations.
Those party volunteers will not monitor election irregularities but will take note who votes on which party ticket. In Missouri, voters do not declare a party affiliation at registration.
The challengers sit behind Judges of Elections at tables used to check registration. The challengers have lists of registered voters, just as the judges do, and the challengers check off names of voters when they hear them, noting what type of ballot was taken.
"It's specifically allowed in presidential election," Struckhoff said of the practice."Struckhoff is our county cllerk.
Now here is why I am ranting: Why do these party officials have the right to know which ballot I've chosen so they can assume that is my party and bombard me with calls trying to influence my vote??????
I know some states make you declare but here in MO as an Independent voter I cherish being able to vote for the person and the issue not the party.
If I wanted to be put in one of their 'boxes' and claimed wouldn't I have avowed myself to their party already??
Shouldn't I have the right to my anonymity????????? I shouldn't have to avoid going and voting to protect my privacy.
I do declare this night that I do and they shouldn't be allowed to do this!!!
Some times the law makes so sense whatsoever to me.
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Comments: 17
It doesn't to me either.
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Have a great gather day!!!!!
I thought everyone had the right to a private vote. I can see how this could be horribly misused.
We lived for a while in a very small town in Oklahoma. Sometimes I shocked the little elderly ladies who worked the polls by filling out my ballot in front of them and dropping it in the box. They expected everyone to go into a booth and vote secretly.
I don't understand how a practice like this could be legal. Thanks for the information, and . . . no wonder you are angry.
When I went to vote yesterday both parties had someone there with all the name checking which ticket (dem, rep, or lib) each person picked up right next to their name on their printouts.
I still don't understand why this should be legal in a state where I don't have to declare what I am politically. I would hate it if I lived in one of those states. My rights to privacy are going down the tube in every direction.
We used to have machines, but in this area, the above is how we vote. I never understood how there could be problems, at least until the time they were counted.
In Oklahoma, politicians always provided rides to the polling place, which to me seemed wrong because it could influence uninformed people on how to vote. The ballot and voting process was pretty much the same there - secret.
Then you take it to a little table that has petitions on 3 sides but no total privacy to mark with special pens now because the new machines read the ballots in a different way. We used to have the chads but after what happened in Florida those are long gone.