The "I Voted in the Mall", edition.

Good Saturday evening!  Yes. Saturday evening. It was on my mind.  Plus I'm going to be busy tomorrow so why not knock this out now?  Nevada has a primary election on June 14. Early voting started in late May. Isn't that something?  So different from Michigan. And early voting locations are all over the city. We are not limited by where we live or precinct..at least for early voting. We even got a notice that voting would be available at some grocery stores over the Memorial Day weekend. How cool is that?  

The last election, in 2014, we voted early at a mall that's a far distance from where we live. This time we went to the mall closest to us. The original plan was to go to yet another mall after we left deep water fitness, but I wasn't feeling well after. I digress. 

We walked into the mall and not to far from the entrance was the voting area. There were people set up with laptops. One of the clerks called me over and asked my name. He looked up the name on the computer and asked me to verify my date of birth. He then printed out a sticker with my name, address, date of birth and some other information, handed it to me and asked me to verify it. Once I verified the information, I was given a key card....like what you use for a hotel room. 

Once I have the card I am directed to a voting machine by a guy with American flags. Like the guy directing the airplanes. Yeah. That was just the guy being different. But. In Detroit, each precinct has 6 machines and it can cause a backlog during a big election. You know you've waited over 30 minutes to vote. Here, there were about 12-15 voting machines.  

I go to the machine. I enter the key card into a slot in the voting machine. The card determines the ballot I get. A Democratic ballot for the area I live in. Once I insert the card keg, my ballot appears on the TOUCH SCREEN. Yes, a touch screen. Not a scantron where I need a pen to fill in a circle next to my selection.  Each elected position has its own page. I touch the name I want to vote for, then touch the "next" button. And yes there is a "back" button if I need it. Once I finish, I am notified that there were some positions I didn't selected, but that's ok. I'm asked to verify my choices. Once I verify, I accept and that's it. I take the card out, give it to the lady by the exit and she hands me a "I voted" sticker. The entire process was less than 10 minutes. Using the scantron method adds time to the individual voter process. And I don't have to hand my ballot to someone and stand there while the machine reads my ballot. 

I'm impressed with the technology. I can vote anywhere in the greater Las Vegas area.  The network is county wide. And Clark county is huge!  There were no glitches. My name and location determined which ballot I was given. It makes Detroit look horribly backwards. That being said, Detroit did not..does not invest in infrastructure as it should. And the idea of early voting over the course of weeks is absolutely brilliant. But I guess when "people" want to suppress votes, the early voting process will not occur. And oh. Election Day voting is at a location near where I live. But the early voting process?  How convenient is it if I am shopping at the mall. And decide to vote.  I like it. 

On the dialysis front, I had digestive issues today. I'm not sure where it came from. I tried chicken sausage for the first time today, so that may have been it. Belchy and nauseous. Ugh. I ended up sleeping the day away. And then I started cramping. Geez. The cramping may have been from being dehydrated so I'm drinking water now. Trying to maintain that balance of drinking to much to not drinking enough is a challenge. Remember, because my kidneys don't work, I don't pee. So all fluids just hang around until I dialyze. And I'm sure being in the desert doesn't help. The good news is, is I did my workout today. Yay! 

Well that's it for today. Or tonight. Hah!  Have a great day!