Voting

Well informed Voter

|

I didn’t know who to vote for in the primary. So I voted for the candidates I had never heard of before, had no lawn signs and sent no mail. I like voting for dark horses.

NPR

|

Amid Worries About Election Security, Microsoft Unveils Voting Machine Software : NPR

In an effort to improve confidence in elections, Microsoft announced Monday that it is releasing an open-source software development kit called ElectionGuard that will use encryption techniques to let voters know when their vote is counted. It will also allow election officials and third parties to verify election results to make sure there was no interference with the results.

20th Century Constitutional Amendment. The Right to Vote cost $2.00 in Massachusetts; actual receipt shown here. Voting Rights, Civil Rights Acts

|

Poll Tax: 20th Century Constitutional Amendment. The Right to Vote cost $2.00 in Massachusetts; actual receipt shown here. Voting Rights, Civil Rights Acts

By 1963 we were ready to exercise our voting rights. And so, in March, I went to the Town Hall of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, to register to vote. Whoa!

"First, Mr. Dailey, there is the little matter of the poll tax."

"What? In this bastion of pilgrim democracy, is a town official telling me there is such a thing as a poll tax?"

Peggy and I had voted years earlier in a number of states, including Virginia, the heart of the Confederacy.! (Virginia, it needs to be noted, had imposed a special federal registration requirement, not a poll tax, but an impediment to voters who did not pay the poll tax in the state's elections.)