I thought I would write one more thing down about the election. It was going to be in this other elections post, but as a question. Now I have the answer, so I thought I would post it in case others were wondering too.
I was talking to a friend who had to vote early at the returning office, and she asked me “How are you going to handle this ballot?” I said I would get the poll worker to set up the stupid template thing with the holes and tell me who’s no. 1, 2, and so on, and then make a mark in the appropriate box. Then she said “But no, the ballots are different this year. You have to write the candidate’s name on the ballot.” Then I was super worried. Had they had so little time to prepare that they hadn’t made ballots where you make your little x? Were we scrambling that much?
Thankfully, that was not the case. It turns out that since she had voted at the returning office, she had voted by special ballot. I always thought you could use a normal ballot even if you voted at the returning office, but I guess not, at least not this year. These ballots are weird because they could be filled out potentially before all candidates are confirmed if the person wanting to vote is an uber keener. So they expect you to find your list of candidates, and then write down the name of the one you want to vote for on the ballot…which I could definitely not do.
So, if you thought maybe you’d have better luck voting at the returning office because there wouldn’t be heaps of humanity all crammed in there, if you’re a blind guy who doesn’t know how to write stuff with a pen, you might end up with a different problem. And now I know more about special ballots.