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percent this year, will be cast electronically — that is, by computer.
Rappahannock County is part of the 11 percent of the country — one voter in nine, according to The New Yorker — where a voter “still marks the old-fashioned paper ballot that is counted by hand.”
Let's hope progress doesn’t reach us anytime soon.
There’s something about walking into the Mount Lebanon Baptist Church, giving the election officers my name and being issued paper ballots to mark my vote. In Washington, a cardboard packing crate bearing the Westinghouse logo ensured privacy. In Scrabble, it was a large, unidentified piece of cardboard which separated the two voting “booths.”
As voting booths they aren’t much, only a plain wooden podium. There’s a pencil attached with a piece of string — lest a voter take it home as a souvenir, I suppose.
It may be only an illusion, but I’ve still got the feeling that in Rappahannock County my vote counts. Don’t get me wrong — my choice doesn’t always win. As a matter of fact, since I first began voting 15 years ago I’ve probably backed more losers than winners.
But Election Day in Rappahannock County evokes feelings that I’m not sure are still found in the polling places in urban areas.
The election officials who work at the Scrabble precinct are my neighbors. Most of the time I don’t have to tell them my name. They recognize most everyone who votes there. And the other voters say hello, too.
82.2%