In all my years of standing by the voting machines, there has never been as much confusion in my town as this year. First was helping people get used to the "scan" method of voting. Voting started at 6 a.m. and it was 6:12 a.m. that the delay began with people lined up out the door. "It just doesn't seem like I voted when there's no levers," more than one lady complained and then there was "How the hell do I know if that thing really worked? Them computer hackers could get in there and change my vote."
The real mass confusion came regarding the "Tea Party". It was so bad, I'm thinking of not working at the election next year and like other sensible retirees, sending in my absentee ballot from New Mexico. A burly fella burst back to the registration table from the voting area.
"I don't see no Tea Party on there, just Damn Democrats and Rotten Republicans. Why ain't the Tea Party on the ballot?"
"Oh, the Tea Party is not an official party, it's....more of a movement," I tried to explain.
He looked at me like I was the senile one. "Don't you watch the news? It's been on TV for months about the Tea party. I wanna vote the Tea party line."
I tried again to explain what the tea party was, which was difficult to do because I don't truly understand what it is except that it exploits the anger of the hard working American for the purposes of the rich.
"Well, I ain't votin' then," he said and slammed out the door.
He was the first of many who had misunderstood that the Tea Party was not actually a separate party. However most of the others voted for someone, even if they didn't know who was for tea and who was not. "They all lie. I just close my eyes and pick one," one lady said.
At the end of the longest 16 hours I ever worked, I thought back to the founders of our nation and their fears of the havoc that voting by the ignorant would bring. The original restrictions that senators not be elected directly by the people almost sounded right to me. We are a democracy, but we need to be an informed democracy. And by informed I don't mean watching the yelping "news" commenentators. There's still something called NEWSpapers out there which still do their best to explore real issues and the candidates views on them.
I'm afraid that when Americans find out that the tea party has pulled the tea bags over their eyes, and that it is really about serving the interests of the the rich who are funding a lot of the nasty lie filled advertisements for their candidates, there will be a real revolution. Hell has not fury like an American duped.
