{"id":762,"date":"2006-11-07T22:27:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-07T22:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=762"},"modified":"2006-11-07T22:27:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-07T22:27:00","slug":"a-ritual-no-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=762","title":{"rendered":"A ritual no more"},"content":{"rendered":"

I like living where I do. I like going down to the old schoolhouse to vote in a building where time seems to have stopped about 1950 (except in two classrooms that are now a library).<\/p>\n

I like seeing the election judges whom I otherwise might meet only at the post office, since the cafe closed and I obviously don’t attend the community church.<\/p>\n

“Hi, Irene. How’ve you been, Alden?”<\/p>\n

But after today, no more.<\/p>\n

We used to vote on paper ballots that were marked and then fed into a scanner. With three or four booths and only a couple of hundred voters in the precinct, lines were always short. Go in, get registration checked, vote, grab coffee and cookie, and out.<\/p>\n

But this year the county went to electronic machines. The machine works great–but that is machine, singular. County funds are short. Our precinct gets one machine, and this year’s Colorado ballot is a long one crammed with referenda and initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Poll workers estimated 10 minutes per voter. I know that I was faster than that, but still, it was 8:20 a.m. and I was only voter number 12. (Polls open at 7 a.m., but they had some trouble getting the voting computer going, they said.)<\/p>\n

M. stopped on her way to work mid-morning when the congestion was supposed to be less, and instead it was worse. She eventually gave up. Sorry, Congressman Salazar<\/a>, that’s one less for you.<\/p>\n

After today, I resolve to vote early at the courthouse or else by absentee ballot. I will miss Alden, Irene, and the free cookies. I will miss the little civic ritual of climbing the steps of the old schoolhouse, ready to commit democracy.<\/p>\n

Cross-posted to Nature Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like living where I do. I like going down to the old schoolhouse to vote in a building where time seems to have stopped about 1950 (except in two classrooms that are now a library). I like seeing the election judges whom I otherwise might meet only at the post office, since the cafe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-ci","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4184,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4184","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":0},"title":"How Many Gods Are There? Vote Now!","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It must be a slow news day, because the Denver Post's daily news poll is about God . . . or Goddess . . . or the Gods. \"Hard\"\u00a0 polytheism is running at less than 2 percent, so if you can't vote early, vote often. I doubt than anyone is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"journalism\"","block_context":{"text":"journalism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=journalism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1072,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1072","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":1},"title":"Finding Relief from Political Advertising","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Colorado is considered an important swing state in this year's election (that's a first!), so lots of money is being poured into television advertising, both in the presidential race and in the race for retiring Senator Wayne Allard's seat.The other problem that our state laws make it almost too easy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9948,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9948","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":2},"title":"The Gods Do Not Vote, So Why Are You Asking Them?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was a kid, I read some condensed version of the Iliad for young people. I did not understand the gods. After all, I was raised to be a Christian. In the Bible, YHWH was supposed to take care of his special people, the Jews, although sometimes he expressed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/catland-brett-kavanaugh-witch.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/catland-brett-kavanaugh-witch.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/catland-brett-kavanaugh-witch.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/catland-brett-kavanaugh-witch.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10673,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10673","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":3},"title":"Increased Recognition for Romuva in Lithuania","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 26, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Lithuanian parliament moved Romuva, its leading Pagan movement, a step closer to state recognition recently. Here is a Google-translation of the article's first paragraphs: 46 members of the Seimas [parliament] voted for the recognition of\u00a0 [by?] the State of Romuva on Tuesday, before 19 were abstained and 18 members\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Lithuania\"","block_context":{"text":"Lithuania","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=lithuania"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":748,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=748","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":4},"title":"Save a dog–Vote yes on 44","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"OK, one endorsement on the crowded Colorado ballot: Amendment 44.It would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, putting Colorado into much the same legal territory as Alaska.Cannabis is not really part of my life, but I don't care to see headlines like this one from Texas: Dead Dog, $5K\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6313,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6313","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":5},"title":"Ayahuasca Tourism and Pagan Holidays","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Kira Salak, a writer for National Geographic, has a good article published on her ayahuasca pilgrimage to Peru. But she can't call it a that. It was \"a lark,\" at least the first time: And then there is me, who a year ago came to Peru on a lark to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"entheogens\"","block_context":{"text":"entheogens","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=entheogens"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}