My political encounter this weekend

[Nimrod]

This was rather telling I thought. I have just moved to a new town and a new state, arriving just in time to attend the annual town fair. Naturally amid all the hubbub, there were political booths. Just as an experiment I stopped at both the Republican and Democrat booths.

For the record, I'm in my thirties, have long hair, and was wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans.

The Republican booth was quite small, manned by old, overweight men. Their propoganda pamphlets were probably 60%-70% based in religion. When I eventually got someone's attention and told them I was new in the state I had a voter registration form shoved in my direction with only a perfunctory "welcome to the state". I stuck it in my pocket and moved on.

On to the Democrat booth where I was greeted warmly and welcomed to the community. I had my hand shaken by a lovely woman named Susan Wortman who is running for the House of Representatives, given free run of the informational pamphlets with no one putting any specific ones in my hand. I had a friendly chat with those manning the booth and was ASKED if I wanted a voter registration card.

So now I had two in my pocket. Care to guess which one got filled out and which one was tossed in the trash?

Nothing truly earthshaking, just a little anecdote from my first week in town.

[Richardo]

1. Nice story, and welcome to DU, Nimrod!

:toast:

[jean]

2. Welcome to DU - Seattle is fortunate to have you, Nimrod!

:hi:

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Welcome to DU!!! (and a quick question on the forms)

Were either of the forms pre-filled out? e.g. Repub checked or Democrat checked?

Just curious. Heard the Repubs are doing that.

[Nimrod]

4. That was part of why I did the experiment

To be fair, neither form was pre-checked.

[Andy_Stephenson]

5. You live in Seattle now???

Out-freaking-standing.

We should meet for coffee sometime.

It is a Seattle tradition after all.

[Nimrod]

6. Unfortunately...

...I just moved OUT of Seattle after living there almost 20 years. Extremely expensive to live in Seattle in specific and Washington in general.

I know live quite happily in Stevensville, a little podunk town outside of Missoula Montana (just realized I had forgotten to update my profile).

[Pachamama]

8. Oops...nevermind...just saw your not in Seattle afterall....well, Welcome

to the DU anyway....:hi:

[Pachamama]

7. Interesting contrast, isn't it? Btw-Welcome to Seattle and the DU!

:hi: I'm not in Seattle (anymore) although I was up there this weekend visiting, but its a great town and you'll love it! Lot's of good DUers up there that you can "meetup" with... :toast:

PS: Regarding the upcoming "Primaries" in Washington - While I was there this weekend, I heard of the "new" program where one has to declare whether one is Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian if you want to vote....I can't even believe that it's legal...I keep hoping the voters will challenge it in court....