I voted...and managed to screw it up

The instructions are pretty simple. Get a ballot, fill in the little circles next to the candidate(s) that you're voting for, then turn in your completed ballot.

I did that. I voted for one mayor. I voted for three school board members. I voted for three city council members. I filled in my circles and was very careful to color inside the lines. I checked and double checked that I had voted for the "right" people. I took my ballot up to the little machine. I made sure I properly inserted my ballot into the little machine. And that's when the machine--that little miracle of technology, that thing which reads my ballot and instantly makes sure my vote is counted, that modern day descendant of the old-school cardboard ballot box--told me that my ballot was "invalid". Invalid? That couldn't be...I had been so careful.

The now-not-so-smart machine asked me if I wanted my ballot back. Of course I did. That's MY ballot. That's MY chance to have a say in the local government. Give it back to me you stupid little machine. So I push the button and my ballot comes sliding back out to me. I double check circles, I recount my votes, I re-read the instructions...oh. Oops. Apparently, you're only allowed to vote for two city council candidates, not three. (If you refer to my post from yesterday, you'll see just how mixed up I was...)

Now, there's a part of me that thinks democracy would be a lot more fun if you could vote for as many (or as few) people as you want. If too many candidates get more than 50% of the vote, then they have to thumb-wrestle for it or something. Or maybe a "Billy Madison" style talent show. If too few get more than 50%, then you draw a random citizen's name out of a hat to fill any empty spots. But that's not how it works,so I had to take my ballot up to the nice little ladies working the front table, and politely explain to them why I'm too much of an idiot to follow simple directions. All this time, I'm having visions of hanging chads and disputed ballots...

In the end, I got it right. My original ballot was voided, I got a fresh new one, I filled in the correct number of circles (coloring inside the lines, of course), the lovely ladies working the table were more than patient and accommodating, and I cast my ballot for one mayor, two city council members, and three school board members.

This time, the little electronic "I'm-smarter-then-you-sucker" ballot box accepted my ballot and counted it. And with that, I took part in one of our greatest civic processes...and the great American democracy proved itself to be greater than my ineptitude.