I am furious, absolutely furious, for the first time in my life, I felt helpless at the polls. I woke up at 5:30 AM on November 3rd to stand in below freezing temperatures to partake in my civic duty as an American Citizen.
Upon arriving at my polling place, I saw the line stretched out the door, I felt a sense of pride in my country and my fellow voters. That is, until I was handed my ballot.
When given my ballot, the woman behind the plexiglass shield also handed me a manila folder and a small blue pen, about the size of a golf pencil. Then, I made my way over to an open seat to fill out my ballot.
While selecting my candidates I noticed that this pen had “I Voted Fairfax County’ inscribed on it.
“Interesting. I guess we get to keep these.” I thought to myself, not aware what that would mean in the coming moments
I happily made my way over to the scanner, dropped in my ballot, and headed towards the door. Then, I stopped. Something didn’t feel right. Something was missing. “The sticker” I thought to myself.
I approached a poll worker and asked,
“Hi! Where are we supposed to get our stickers this year?”
“Oh! We’re not doing them this year, the pen is kinda the sticker”
My heart sunk to my stomach. “Oh, Okay. Thank you!” I replied as I headed towards the door.
I felt robbed and cheated, I simply had no clue how to deal with this tremendous loss so, here we are.
First of all these pens absolutely stink. It took a fellow voter multiple pens to cast her ballot, as the pens would produce ink about as fast as Nevada produces ballot counts. If voter’s pens died in the ballot box, they could make stray marks on their ballot which would cause it to be voided.
Secondly the quality of these pens is mediocre at best, the “I Voted Fairfax County” print fades off every time it gets touched. This election could determine the political trajectory of this country for generations. How are people supposed to commemorate such a historic vote with a cheap disposable pen??
(I took this with an iPhone 6s please don’t laugh)
Now some of you may be saying “Max, does anyone really save their “I Voted” sticker? What’s the point?”. Well reader, do I have some news for you. In my wallet I have an “I Voted” sticker from every election I’ve participated in, this was supposed to be the pinnacle, the most historic election of them all. But we’re only given a pen?
I say we take to the streets and demand the rights of every American be restored. If anyone is interested I will be protesting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC on November 31st to demand every eligible American receive their “I Voted” Sticker.
