Thursday, August 21, 2014

Silliness at the Polls!

Before The Doctor left on his journey, he reminded me that early voting is happening right now and encouraged me to go, so I wouldn't have to be stuck waiting behind some dork who failed at signing her signature at the check in.

In all honesty, I completely forgot until I received an email stating that the DVD I placed on hold for L came in.  Our voting place happens to be at the library.  As I pulled in, I realized I could vote at the same time, and figured, "Why not?  Let's just get it over with."

I was greeted by a security guard who reminded me to silence my phone and I said to him, "OK.  Can you help me, though, please?  I just had my nails done."  He looked at me like I was nuts, but obliged my strange request.  He then told me to have my license ready to hand over to the volunteer checking political savvy (or maybe not savvy, just wanting to do their civic duty) people in.

"Yes!," I thought.  "I'm the only one here!  I'll be out of here in no time!"

See, I was starving because I never bothered eating anything after my Kickboxing class this morning.  I'm going to blame everything that happened next on my stomach grumbling so loudly I couldn't concentrate.

I handed my license to the lovely volunteer and she scanned it in and then asked me to sign, so I did.  She then looked at her screen, looked at me, looked at my license and then looked back at the screen.

"Is there a problem?," I asked.

"Well, um, your signature doesn't match," she replied.

"OK.  Can you not tell that it's me by the picture?"

"No, I can see it's you, but you didn't sign your name.  You just put a letter."

"Yes," I said patiently.  "That's my new signature.  It's easier than writing out every letter."

"Well," she explained.  "Your signature has to match what's on the license."

"I need to see the license then.  I have changed my signature about 5 times since I first got that license," I said, earning me looks from both her and the gentleman volunteer sitting next to her, listening to this great saga.

She thrust it back to me and said, "Make sure you sign it exactly like that."

I obviously don't follow directions very well, because it ended up being more squiggle like.  At least it wasn't just a letter this time, though!

She looked at the screen again and I said, "Is that good enough, or shall I try again?"

"No," she sighed.  "This will be fine.  Take the slip over the man over there who'll explain what to do."

The gentleman volunteer sitting next to her finally piped up and offered me some sage advice as I was putting away my license with my now outdated signature.

"You might want to get a new license so that your signatures match," he advised.

I thanked him and told him the next time I had to renew, I'd certainly remember that.  I did not tell him that this is my new signature this year.  When I go to sign, my hand does what it wants and if I like what I see, I keep it until my hand gives me something nicer.

It took me longer to check in than it did to complete the ballot and as I left, I went back up the security guard and asked, "Do you think you could please turn-"

"You want me to turn it back on?," he asked.  "Sure thing!"

I'm fairly certain I heard chuckles and laughter as I left.

I performed my civil duty and I gave people a laugh and something to talk about tonight around the dinner table!  My job here is done.

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