As if the lure of Election Day weren't enough, the 2008 primary elections feature the third different voting technology in the past 10 years, after the abysmal failure of electronic touch voting in the 2000 and 2004 elections. If you haven't voted early at any of the handful of locations in Tampa Bay, line up the old-fashioned way with your fellow citizens and celebrate the beauty that is our democracy. Or, if you are bit too jaded for that purple-mountains-majesty prose, make sure you vote to keep the few idiots on the ballot from getting elected. Don't forget a photo ID so you can get your paper ballot, which you put into a special machine and fill in the bubbles (completely!) next to the candidates you support. Then there's an optical scanner and secrecy folders and lots of other new bells and whistles, too! Don't think of it as doing your constitutional duty; think of it as a nonalcoholic get-together with the neighbors. Tues., Aug. 26, 7 a.m.-7 p.m., at hundreds of locations throughout Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. To find your voting precinct, go to votehillsborough.org or votepinellas.com.
This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2008.