More California "Aaargh"

So, the cat barfed on my general election midterms ballot.

I couldn’t make this up. It sounds so much like “the dog ate my homework” it’s absurd. But it’s true: the ballots were filled out and on the table; we just needed to sign the envelopes and send them in. That night, Tissot jumped up on the table, and in disgust at our choices (I guess) barfed all over my ballot. It only damaged the first two pages; thankfully it didn’t soak through all three and onto Monika’s, which would have been more of a disaster (for reasons which will I will explain in a moment). I know it was my ballot because she filled hers out completely and I’d left one choice unchecked – I had gone to look it up and was going to fill it in before I put it in the envelop.

So I needed a replacement ballot and here’s where I discovered that the Trump administration is completely off their rocker about California in attempts to prevent poor people from voting: California already puts up barriers for poor voters.

To get a replacement ballot, I had to drive 40 minutes (on the freeway) all the way to the other side of the San Francisco Bay to get to the Alameda County voting office to get a replacement ballot. Consider for a moment if I’d been less fortunate to (a) be able to afford the time to drive an hour and twenty minutes round trip plus the time to get a new ballot and fill it out again – say two hours total, and (b) afford the gas which is currently about $5.50/g. Having a ballot ruined isn’t an astronomically unlikely event: even if you don’t have a cat to barf on it, you do have dogs, and spilled coffee, and water rings, and kids. If you’re lucky, you ruined your ballot right after you received it and have enough time to send away in the mail for a new ballot, have it get back to you, and then have it arrive in time to be counted. If not, you’re kind of fucked, in California, because all of this interaction with the voting office has to be done at the county office which (around here, anyway) could be an hour away.

I’ve lived in and voted in: Oregon; Georgia; Minnesota; Pennsylvania; and now California. I’ve volunteered as a voting judge in one of those states. Holy crap does California put up a lot of voting obstacles. It makes me wonder what they’re doing with all of the tax money, because they’re certainly not spending it on voter services.