Waiting To Vote

I’ve been in line 2 hours now,
Some scanners somehow broken,
Annoyance and anxiety
Apparent but unspoken.

We inch along, a patient group,
With no way we can tell
Who’s on the side we each support
And that is just as well.

At last we are inside and now
Our ballots are in hand,
But there is an announcement
Hard to really understand.

It seems the working scanners have
Decided, too, to quit.
And do the voters like this?
They do not, one little bit!

So what to do? Each scanner has
A box within its base
Into which you slide your ballot,
Meant for using “just in case.”

The votes will be “hand-counted,”
We are shockingly assured,
Incompetence a syndrome
That, it seems, cannot be cured.

In 3 hours’ time, I cast my vote
But left there in dismay
That such a thing should happen
With technology today.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2016

Poem

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Callus Avatar
November 8, 2016 at 3:32 PM
That's a long wait to vote, Ilene! It never takes me more than a few minutes. We still vote by ticking on a ballot paper, and all votes are hand counted here in Malta. Of course, it takes a while for the final results. ~ Regards // paul
Smith Avatar
November 8, 2016 at 3:20 PM
wow a real inconvenience...I waited to go until 10 and was in and out without a wait.
Allison Avatar
November 8, 2016 at 2:30 PM
I wish we had internet voting Ilene it would make voting much simpler but then of course it would be subject to possible vote rigging and fraud. I walk in and out of our polling booths at the election time here :-) hugs Jan xx
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