Democracy in Action

Yesterday I went to see the award-winning documentary Holler Back, http://www.hollerbackfilm.com/NonVote.html. I saw it at our wonderful local theatre which is housed in the Town Hall – more about that in another blog entry. The movie explores the voting process in America and in particular why people don’t vote – a very timely topic given that tomorrow is Election Day. One of the reasons given is that people don’t trust the voting system and don’t even believe that their vote will be counted properly. One segment in the film details how voting is conducted in our own small town. Of course, we use paper ballots like the rest of New Hampshire, but unlike most, we hand-count the votes. It is done by teams of four people (with both Democrats and Republicans represented) – the first person reads out a vote, a second person verifies they read it correctly, a third person marks a tally sheet, and the fourth makes sure they marked it right. My husband volunteers every year to be a vote-counter, and once took our daughter along to show her democracy in action. They even open the polling place (our Town Hall, ‘natch, the same building that houses the aforementioned movie theatre) by opening the actual ballot box and showing to all assembled that there is nothing in there – no stuffing the ballot box, if you will. You really have to love the process, and it is just one of the myriad of things I love about a small town that I wish could be perpetuated on a grand scale. No hanging chads for us!