This brief post from hrrrthrrr sort of sums up my reaction to my first vote (or first three) on the east coast.
Here’s how voting in Santa Cruz works (at least for my tenure there). You get a little sheet with a tear off on it and a felt tipped marker. You go to a little table with dividers and gently mark a box next to the name. Very clean, simple and unencumbered.
Here in Brooklyn voting was like standing in front of a gigantic mechanical calculator from the 19th century. You actually pull this huge lever to switch from “normal” to “voting” and then you turn little knobs and gears. Each time you switch a lever there is a horrible Cha-chunk sound. Since this took place in a school gymnasium these sounds echoed, adding gravity to the situation as if I was in some medieval torture chamber with my own personal guillotine.
Bizarre but with sufficient benevolence-inducing goodness.
i liked standing in line in the elementary school gymnasium to turn the levers of the 19th century voting machine to cast my ballot. the big red lever was the best part. there was a visceral, physical quality that you find on the east coast.
I think it just carries this air of false authority to me. As if what you are doing is more important because its big and visceral and scary. I’m more unassuming than that I guess.
hmmm … bah humbug. false authority?! scary?! can you clarify? 1) it felt good to vote 2) in general i think the east coast tends to be more run down and gritty, hence the 19th century voting machine. but that characteristic(s) is something that i like because to me there is a feeling of authenticity and groundedness. we may be talking about different things.
Sure. I can clarify. I meant that having a big, hulking machine with a ridiculously over-sized lever sort of elevates the act of voting beyond simply choosing a candidate or issue and into the realm of creation ala 19th century factory-like machinery. In doing so it makes the physical act more important than the symbolic act. I am also intimidated by complicated machinery. So I am speaking from a personal perspective.