All day long the parties played a pissing contest over how much pressure to bring to bear on each other, the markets, and the people's passions. I will remember this the next time I vote. But the vote just cast has to be clean, or there will be hell to pay.

The people bear the burden of voting. But the election workers have the burden of making that POSSIBLE. Once you are in the polling place, your vote is in the stewardship of the workers and they have authority there. Whatever you may have seen or not seen of the ballot, it is the worker's responsibility to assume you know ZERO and simply wish to VOTE, and to help you do that with some degree of respect for the integrity of your vote.

I have also been a been a volunteer at a polling place that was overwhelemd by early voter turnout, and I can tell you this much-- no matter how overwhelmed you are, your responsibility is to serve each vote's integrity, period. Where were the observers from each party when these irregularities occurred?

I think I am a pretty smart and assertive person. I have voted before. I have done graphic design... and when I went to vote Tuesday, they handed me a ballot set up like I had never seen before and it took me three tries at getting instructions before I got any I could understand. I can be assertive when it makes sense, but I also have a public role in my community-- and sometimes those considerations have to be put first. So I am not always that willing to seem that dumb in public. I bet I am not the only one.

How many people went to vote but did not feel up to arguing with people in charge who exercised authority over them, as election workers actually do? I am most concerned that there are so many cases being reported that people who knew they had made a mistake were denied fresh ballots. That alone ought to call for a remedy in that county.

So if legalities permit this as a remedy, I am for a revote for those who voted, in this Florida county, and anywhere else there can be irregularities documented. The application of legal remedies should be available in any election, whenever the process matters enough to any citizen that they make sufficient noise about it.

~Susan