the corner office

So we got to vote today. In the UK. Not something I'd expected to be able to do, being a lowly immigrant and all, but there you go. Being a member of the Commonwealth is worth something, after all, at least at local government level.

How different elections are here. We arrived at the polling station with our polling letters. Thank you, says dude. Don't you need our ID, says we? No, says dude, just your letter, please, and could you confirm your name? Thanks, dude. Wanted to say 'but I could be an imposter! I could be a crook! I could be voting at 15 other stations! Take my ID! But no, they're trusting, like self-checkout at Sainsburys and the postal service. So we made our ticks (3 forms, one with choice 1 and 2, which half the city thinks is a democratic travesty because it's too complicated, and the other half thinks it's symptomatic of the decline of the British Empire because people are too stupid to handle a simple first/second choice ballot paper), and put 'em in the boxes, and left.

No invisible ink, no ID, just a letter. So civilised. And rather nice to think, there's the off chance that the chap I voted for for might actually win, that my vote might've made a difference.