Affidavit
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Voting in the United States is a tedious business. My vote yesterday took one and a half hours. It took place in the lobby of an apartment building, one of the Lincoln Towers. It was a different place from the one I was used to, a school next to my own apartment building. The long line meandered through a corridor of residential apartments, passed the reception desk in the lobby where it was intersected by pizza and fedex deliveries to the front desk, and curved into a side room where four voting booths and the scanner were lined up. The reason for the length of time that it took between one person and the next to advance into the sanctum of the voting room (between 3 and 5 minutes) was a total mystery, and subject of a lot of speculation at the end of the line. When we got closer, we found out that several people were being trained on the use of the scanner, and that was, to my mind, a satisfactory explanation. But when I got waved in, I found out the real reason: for people like me, having been transferred by the Board of Elections from one venue to the other, there were no voter records available. I was not in the book, in other words, were all the valid signatures are recorded. In yet other words, I had been transferred, but my record was left behind. In order for me to proceed, I had to fill out an affidavit, to swear that I was duly registered, and that my record was not available, and then sign it and date it. For convenience, the affidavit was on the cover of an envelope, into which my ballot could be inserted. I made my choices on the ballot, which was for the guy with the shorter nose, folded the ballot and sealed it into the affidavited envelope, and handed it to the election-meister, the person who was in charge of the whole voting operation here in the Lincoln Tower. This affidavit, along with the other affidavits, was headed for inspection by the Board of Election, and if it was found to be authentic and properly executed and verified, the envelope would be some day be opened and my vote be counted. As I write this, Obama is already elected, and I have to accept the sad fact that he has been elected without the benefit of my vote.
[Image credit: Patrick Chappatte, International Herald Tribune]
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