For only the 3rd time in my life, I have voted for President of the United States of America. I was a few months shy of the age requirement in 1996, but voted early here in Nevada for the 2000, 2004 and 2008 elections. (I always vote mid-term, too, but those don't carry quite the same weight.)

In 2000, I voted for Ralph Nader. Luckily, my vote is not one of the few that cost Gore the election. I say this because Bush won without dispute in Nevada, unlike Florida. Had Nader's supporters voted for Gore there, all of that Supreme Court debacle would not have been necessary; the country would be better off for it. In any case, I am proud of my brief association with 3rd party candidates. I hosted Charles Laws, Green Party candidate for governor of Nevada, in my home in 2004. I voted for him, as well. Do not doubt that I strongly disagree with many of the Green Party's stances, but Messrs. Laws and Nader did not share the extreme views of the neo-hippies and feminists in the party. Also in 2004, I reluctantly supported John Kerry-- only because George Bush was the alternative.

And so now, in 2008, I have already voted, in my neighborhood Albertson's, for Sen. Barack Obama. All of my previous voting experiences had gone smoothly, without any hiccups at all. The electronic voting machines are fantastic and easy to use. I assume my votes are being counted correctly... One never knows, no matter what the voting method is, that things are being added up fairly. That non-sense in Florida revealed a very uncomfortable truth about the problems in our voting system.

In any case, I approached the volunteers at the polling area quite confident that this time would be just as easy as the previous years votes. There was no line, though all but one of the machines was occupied. (At other polling stations I saw very long lines!) The smiling old lady at the table asked for my name, and I gave it to her. She searched for my voting information on the laptop in front of her, and upon finding it, asked me to verify my address. Here, I ran into a bit of a problem. I moved about four months ago to be closer to work and have yet to update my voter registration. Since I never used my old address for mail, it wasn't drilled into my brain or anything. I couldn't remember it, and I told her so, explaining the situation. She pulled the laptop closer to her, positioning the monitor away from my view. The thought ran through my head, Holy geezus! She's not going to let me vote! I assumed she would ask for my driver's license, but I think there must be some rule against that. Democrats seem to think that requiring an ID somehow disenfranchises voters. This seems ridiculous to me, but they believe it. The vote-Nazi lady looked up at me, and then back at her screen, and then back up at me. Well, I don't know... Her voice trailed off into a dark world of skepticism. Finally, she offered me a hint: 11941. That was the house number, but I couldn't remember the street. My ID had my post office box, as did everything else. (Later, I remembered that I had the old address on my phone, which could have saved me a bit of embarrassment and hassle if only I'd thought of it ten minutes earlier.)

What to do!?!

In the vacuum of silence that sucked all hope away, in a moment that seemed to last forever, the protector-of-the-vote stared at me, and I at her, until another volunteer, sitting beside my antagonist, said, Why don't you just ask him something else?

Yes! Saved at last!

The silver-haired Cerberus keeping me from my polling destination looked defeated. Surely she had known all along that she could just verify other info. I jumped at the chance. Yes! Ask me anything else, I said.

Last four of Social? I gave the answer.

Date of birth? I again answered, but this time I wasn't sure if she would ask me everything possible before believing I was me, or not. Apparently the lady next to her wasn't so sure either, because she said, I'm sure that's sufficient. The gate-keeper seemed slightly upset that the inquisition would not continue. Finally she programmed the electronic voting card that I would insert into the machine, programmed especially for my voting precinct. I thanked her and headed for the booth before she changed her mind.

You may be thinking, Maybe she thought you weren't going to vote for her candidate. Maybe, but the poll workers are supposed to act in a non-partisan way. I was quite sure who she was voting for, though. It may be racist, but how many old black ladies do you know who are voting for McCain?