Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Election Day


The front of the legislative buildings on a cloudy, grey day. Wish I knew how to skew this so the buildings were straight. Well, wide angle lens might help?
This plaque is under this big old beech tree at the back of the legislative buildings grounds.

Today we voted for our Provincial Government members of the legislature. As at this posting, the results of the voting are not conclusive.

When I went to get my ballot the person at the desk could not accept my passport as identification, because my address was not on the passport. How silly. This passport does have my address, only I had to write it on the page. If that address did not match my voting card or if that address did not match any of the passport checks it has gone through in the last year, I would probably not be home from Russia yet. I find it entirely ridiculous that the passport of the country I live in is not sufficient identification for the poll people... whatever they are called. When I protested about this the lady... whatever her name was... said "I'm sorry but we don't make the rules". I had to stop myself from making a loud raucous guffaw! If 'we' don't make the rules, ma'am, where are they coming from? Does King Kamball hand these decrees down from his lofty position in the government house or from his Hawaiian jail cell? So be it! I handed them my BC Id card with picture and address. Oh, my, yes! This will be fine! By this time, I was nearly in stitches and trying to keep a straight face. This ID card expired in 2006. Oh my yes, I really think they failed their citizenship tests! oh wait, they were born here, they didn't need to take the test. Or need to know how precious our ability to 'make the rules' just might be, not having had to reason or use any common sense.

5 comments:

eikonos said...

The trick to making the building straight is that the camera must be level — not tilted up or down. For that, you would use a wide angle lens, then crop the photo after. The other options are a special lens, or perspective adjustment in photoshop.

Anonymous said...

Archaic stuff like you went through while trying to vote seems rampant in all nation's elections. Makes me want to jump up on the table in front of the poll workers, drop my pants and squat, and place my "vote" where it will surely be seen and counted.
---
As for the building skew, a dslr and Lens Baby will help. ;-D

Maggie said...

A dslr and a lensbaby! I have been resisting the obsession of getting a lens baby for years. Yes, some day I will have the time!

Thanks eikonos. I see your photo blog and good photo of the buildings. I am aware of the skew tool in photoshop, but need more practice to make it work properly. The dslr with a good wide angle would be preferable.

I will find you on vfxy. I cannot seem to comment on your photoblog. Best of luck with the print sales. You have some good looking photography.

Jaromey Weel said...

Your "lucky" friend, Jaromey, worked as a Voting Clerk at the Election. Remind me not to do that job again, okay. Lucky you had the 2006 card as outdated is still okay, otherwise off to fill out 200B form. 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Long day ... not worth it ... not to mention how much study time I did to understand the white/pink/blue forms for the Advance Voting :-(

Maggie said...

Hi Lucky!
Thanks for the inside look at the long day.

Forms by the dozens and in triplicate, color coded everything will never replace common sense. Its like the income tax forms. They are just 'make work' processes for accountants and bureaucrats. The whole thing is a total disservice to the citizens of the country. And to top it all off, they take the money from the tax payers (Us) to run this confusing mess. This is the age of technology? The paperless society? oh man!