{"id":105321,"date":"2020-09-21T11:30:31","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T15:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=105321"},"modified":"2020-09-21T10:58:33","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T14:58:33","slug":"regarding-the-secret-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=105321","title":{"rendered":"Regarding the Secret Ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tomorrow is the First Day of Autumn 2020. Normally, we think about such mundane things as migrating flocks heading south and finding time to hunt the local deer.\u00a0 And before long, it will be winter, and ice fishing will be starting up.<\/p>\n

This is in regard to the secret ballot:\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.ncsl.org\/research\/elections-and-campaigns\/secrecy-of-the-ballot-and-ballot-selfies.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n

While personal choices in voting are held to be private and in some states, it is illegal to ask someone who s\/he\/it voted for, there are so many nosy reporters around and so many damned fools posting selfies of themselves online with their completed ballot, that the \u201csecret\u201d thing went out the window a long time ago. Selfies at the voting booth are considered covered by the First Amendment section regarding free speech, therefore, the selfie with ballot at the voting booth is covered.<\/p>\n

Is the secret ballot a law? That depends on where you are when you vote. Some states have discarded the \u201csecret\u201d part and others have retained it.<\/p>\n

If you vote in person instead of by mail, you are under no obligation to speak to anyone upon exiting the polls.\u00a0 However, if some nosy reporter shows up at your polling place with a TV channel van and a microphone, you are under no obligation \u2013 zero, nada, rien, ????, keine \u2013 obligation to say anything more than \u2018None of your beeswax\u2019, and walk away. You could possibly make nosy reporters run away by telling them you feel nauseous and you’re about to barf, then watch them scatter.<\/p>\n

I suggest carrying some pepper spray, just in case you run into the feral types that hide in the bushes and jump out with a microphone and TV camera person.<\/p>\n

And besides, in this age of \u201ceveryone\u2019s on TV now\u201d and \u201cwe will find you and hunt you down\u201d, answering such a stupid question may be a threat to your welfare and security.<\/p>\n

If I have to carry a spray bottle of 409 with me to chase pests away from my immediate area, I will do so, but it\u2019s pretty quiet around here and the polling place is at our town hall, which is right next door to the police station. It\u2019s nice to live in a small, quiet town, on an out-of-the-way street. Life is still civilized where I live\u2026 for now, at least.<\/p>\n

I’m thinking of this fussing as a precursor to Hallowe’en and I might just dress up in a Plague Doctor get-up: bird beak mask, hat, black cape, black clothes and gloves – all of it – and go vote that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tomorrow is the First Day of Autumn 2020. Normally, we think about such mundane things as … Regarding the Secret Ballot<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":653,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220,213,430],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-floggings-will-continue-until-morale-improves","category-your-tax-dollars-at-work","category-2020-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105322,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105321\/revisions\/105322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}