Yeah, I've been back for a while, just quietly reading
the digest. Life as co-moderator of Cybermind is a bit,
ahem, draining at times, not to mention the fact that
my ph.d. exams are in 55 days. :( Actually, though,
being on FC helps remind me that elists are not always
in crisis, and that this too shall pass on Cybermind.
I did something interesting yesterday that I think some
of y'all should check out someitme. I worked at the
elections -- i.e. I was a "precinct judge" at the
Ohio primary. At least in this state almost anyone
can do it just by calling the elections board. You
get paid $75 in Ohio to do it. It an interesting
time all 'round. You get to hang out for 13 hours
with a bunch of old ladies (and one old man in my
experience) and it got me thinking more about "democracy"
and electoral participation.
The most interesting thing was how decentralized
it really was. I mean, us 4 were totally responsible
for the vote in this little corner of the world. We
had complete control over verifying voters, setting
up the pollbooth, opening and closing the polls, picking
up the supplies, and driving the results over to the
elections board when it was all over. Sort of amazing
it works at all, with _so_ many people with so
much power.
Has anyone ever done this who isnt in the US? Is it a
similar volunteer-type job there?
pip