Voting in a local election should be an exciting opportunity for all citizens to have their voices heard. Today (Nov. 7), I marched down to the Rec to fill out my ballot in my own local election. When I arrived, the process was great; the registration people had my information, the ballots were easy to mark, and the process itself was borderline delightful.
That is, until I flipped the ballot over to the “questions.” I am a fairly well-read individual, and am proud to hold a master’s degree in English. I have to say that the wording of these questions on recreational marijuana was cumbersome, confusing, and seemingly distracting from the issues at hand. Shame on whichever bureaucratic bigwig wrote those “questions” in a manner that can only be described as doubly negative, especially knowing the average education level of their constituents.
Educating oneself on the issues beforehand was a necessity, since merely reading the questions left me with many questions. I wonder how many people actually knew what they were voting for, or against.
Moriah Erickson
Houlton
