One of my first official duties as a resident of San Francisco was to take action so that, in what I can’t believe isn’t a dream sequence, Arnold Schwarzenegger would NOT become governor of the state of California. Which didn’t involve going into the future or creating some sort of spaceage weapon but, in a move you couldn’t have convinced me of two years ago, required me to vote in an honest-to-God election. Which I did. Vote against the both the idea and the man that is.

Two things surprised me about the day, other than the whole usurping of democracy and rousing endorsement of misogyny and ignorance as good leadership qualities, was what a sham the actual process itself was and who exactly was facilitating the sham. Chicago might have a shady reputation when it comes to the practice of free and open democracy but at least when I went to vote I had to present identification, someone over the age of twelve would checked my signature AND my voter card before I was allowed to complete my ballot. In San Francisco I was greeted by a teenage kid with a handlebar mustache, a very, very agitated woman who smelled faintly of liquor and a gentleman I would charitably describe as a hobo who would sing random dirty song lyrics while looking for my name in the voter registration book. This voter log, by the way, was also posted outside and since I was not require to show absolutely any form of ID before casting my vote or even be able to pronounce my own name last name I could have just picked someone at random and submit a ballot then gone to the next station and done the same. In fact I’m pretty sure I could have come back ten minutes later and done it and no one there would have blinked and eye.

Oh and this by the way is HOW I voted:

You don’t even have to read in this state, just complete the arrow. Christ. I’d like to think that those factors contributed to the ascension of the Governator but sadly I’m fairly sure he won the popular vote which is even more depressing when you think about it.