I'm upset, VERY upset. I just came back from the electoral college for Spanish 2007 municipal elections and i had to spend at least 5 minutes in front of all the stacks of ballot papers looking for the one i wanted.
And the problem was not that there were much possibilities to vote (that would have been a GOOD THING™). The problem is that someone had put other party ballot papers on the top of the stack of the party i wanted to vote, so i had to actually realize there was two stacks with the same ballot papers and then start removing ballot papers from the top of both until i actually found the one i wanted to get.
I feel shame of living in the same neighborhood than someone so dull and simple that wants to fuck that small party i vote and doesn't have a better idea than putting an even small party ballots on top of it.
And then i went to complain to municipal representative and he said something that can be summarized as "Shit happens", Very helpful, eh? :-/ He could have said "I'll double check next time", even if it had been false it would have made me feel better.
Did you know they even replaced the religious holidy (Segona Pasqua) to next week so people don't take a "pont"?
ReplyDeleteEverywhere in europe we celebrate it tomorrow.
Could this be because this municipal representative is not a volunteer but being forced to work more than 8 hours on a sunday?
ReplyDeleteI was really surprised to learn that this is the way it works here in Spain (I am from The Netherlands myself but live in Madrid) and was outraged to read in the newspapers that a woman who had just had a baby and was enjoying her maternaty leave at home is being forced to sit an entire day in one of those places where people go to vote.
Unfortunately, things vary a lot from one electoral school to another. Despite being 26, I've voted in at least three different ones, and sometimes (can vary year to year, because the interventors are different, I suppose), the amount of ballots from each party is at the same level, but sometimes the responsibles of doing this are completely ignoring their work.
ReplyDeletethis sort of thing would be cause for nullification of the vote over here (in France that is).
ReplyDelete@quintesse: municipal representative is a paid municipal worker, there's one by electoral colleges, what is force is the people attending the voting tables.
ReplyDelete@amaury: i'm not asking for a vote nullification, that seems a bit hard, but i have liked:
a) having a place where to write down my complain
b) having the municipal representative warn party interventors
In the US polling places are run by volunteers (meaning, old people) and a representative from every party is allowed to sit at the polling place.
ReplyDeleteSeems like the latter would solve the issue.
Here in Greece we get handed a pack with every party's ballot by the representative, so there is no way to miss the one you want to vote
ReplyDelete(er.. usually that is)