It was a lovely day for a walk. After lunch I walked downtown to go to the post office, vote, and run some other errands.
There were multiple petition signature-gatherers hanging out in front of the post office in my small town. On the way out I let them approach me to find out what they were collecting signatures for. It turns out they wanted a new authorization period for the racino law, which permitted a racetrack and casino to be built in Bangor some years back. They keep coming up with laws intended to permit geographically-targeted gambling as the solution to rural poverty. The casinos are actually run by out-of-state companies who fill the good jobs with out-of-state hirees and end up paying crap wages to what few locals they hire for menial jobs.
In gratitude, the locality probably gives them property and business tax breaks that means they are essentially subsidized by taxpayers.
The petitioner, a scruffy young guy I guessed was being paid by out-of-state money said, "Better than no jobs."
I disagreed and described it as "redistribution of wealth from the people of Maine to rich out-of-staters." I doubt that hearing my opinion changed his mind.
I walked over to City Hall, where a sign said that voting was now taking place in the second floor auditorium. Usually I vote early enough to do so downstairs next to the City Clerk's office, before they move voting upstairs. If you vote really early, they let you use the council chamber as a voting booth.
Going up the stairs, I passed an elderly couple on the way down with absentee ballots in their hands, taking them home to vote.
Two workers from the City Clerk's office were seated on a long table in front, with laptops, boxes of ballots and other papers, and miscellaneous gadgets. Off to the side, an elderly woman was seated at a registration table, from which hung a sign listing the documents required to register on the spot.
Approaching the table, I mentioned that it looked quiet. The woman disagreed, and said it had been busy.
She looked me up, wrote my name on the envelope, tucked some informational printouts about the referenda into the envelope containing my ballots, and handed me a marker. In one of the voting booths along the left-hand wall, I filled in the ovals on the optical scan forms. I voted straight ticket Democrat.
Back at the table, I sealed the envelope and signed it.
There were no poll-watchers present.
Afterwords I went straight home rather than going to the store, which means I will have to run out for ice cream now.