Look at Me, I'm Observing!
It was parliamentary elections yesterday, and I got the chance, thanks to the "It's Your Choice" NGO and Transparency International, to be a full-fledged elections observer! Well, me and lots of other people, including a number of Diasporan-Armenians, but I guess I was a bit over-excited, because, honestly, at the end of the day, I think it's pretty cool. I like doing things I've never done before.
So, the day started early, because polling stations were to run from eight a.m. to eight p.m., and everyone at the stations - nine members of the local electoral committee (if that's the right word for it), plus representatives of parties, individuals running and just plain ol' observers - needed to be there an hour early. My spot was a school down the street from my house, and I got there to see everyone there already, on time, which was reassuring.
Everything went so smoothly, I can't tell you. The team there was headed by a particularly active and capable lady, and she knew all the ins and outs of the process. Voting started on time, even a bit early, actually, and continued on and on and on and on... Ah, yes, that was the tedious part, or so I thought, all the waiting, hanging around, for twelve whole hours. I had opted for a full-day shift, because I really wanted to do this thing and do it properly, so, yes, especially as there was absolutely nothing fraudulent going on at my polling station, it got a bit tiring.
We finally ended at eight exactly, having received 1016 votes for the day.
And then... Well, that's when it got REALLY tedious. Excruciatingly painstaking, I can't begin to tell you, because we had to count, count each and every single piece of ballot paper, in the presence of twenty people, one by one, bit by bit... Now, I'm an early sleeper, and this thing literally went for hours. First we had to count the party votes - the proportional list - and then the chaps running individually... This was just so bad, it got irritating. I mean the people were very nice, but the relentless tide of counting, add to that the smoke from the inevitable cigarettes, the crankiness from lack of sleep...
Suffice to say, well before six in the morning, which is when I finally got home, I was thinking, "There HAS TO BE a better way of doing this". What, nobody's heard of computers around here ? Is electronic voting so hard to get together ? Or at least electronic counting, you know, like banks have cash counting things... In the late eighteenth century, we had a brilliant compatriot in Madras, in India, one Shahamir Shahamiryan, and his idea was to establish a republic in Armenia, the voting of which would take place by the baklan system, that is, with beans. Each candidate would have a jar to himself, and the electorate would place beans in the corresponding jars. By eight p.m., just by looking at a jar, or weighing it, I guess you'd be pretty sure who'd won...
Well, it was awfully tiring, but I have to say I was terribly impressed, and felt proud, because, before going in as an observer, I was expecting to see the most khaydarag, utterly ridiculous things as usual, and I was even looking forward to a nice fight with the authorities, but things went so smoothly, it was so clean, so just... I mean, I've been hearing reports from elsewhere, and the Lord alone knows what we are to expect in the next few weeks in terms of accusations and rallies, but all I know is, I have not lost my faith in the Armenian people and democracy, as I expected I would.
So, the day started early, because polling stations were to run from eight a.m. to eight p.m., and everyone at the stations - nine members of the local electoral committee (if that's the right word for it), plus representatives of parties, individuals running and just plain ol' observers - needed to be there an hour early. My spot was a school down the street from my house, and I got there to see everyone there already, on time, which was reassuring.
Everything went so smoothly, I can't tell you. The team there was headed by a particularly active and capable lady, and she knew all the ins and outs of the process. Voting started on time, even a bit early, actually, and continued on and on and on and on... Ah, yes, that was the tedious part, or so I thought, all the waiting, hanging around, for twelve whole hours. I had opted for a full-day shift, because I really wanted to do this thing and do it properly, so, yes, especially as there was absolutely nothing fraudulent going on at my polling station, it got a bit tiring.
We finally ended at eight exactly, having received 1016 votes for the day.
And then... Well, that's when it got REALLY tedious. Excruciatingly painstaking, I can't begin to tell you, because we had to count, count each and every single piece of ballot paper, in the presence of twenty people, one by one, bit by bit... Now, I'm an early sleeper, and this thing literally went for hours. First we had to count the party votes - the proportional list - and then the chaps running individually... This was just so bad, it got irritating. I mean the people were very nice, but the relentless tide of counting, add to that the smoke from the inevitable cigarettes, the crankiness from lack of sleep...
Suffice to say, well before six in the morning, which is when I finally got home, I was thinking, "There HAS TO BE a better way of doing this". What, nobody's heard of computers around here ? Is electronic voting so hard to get together ? Or at least electronic counting, you know, like banks have cash counting things... In the late eighteenth century, we had a brilliant compatriot in Madras, in India, one Shahamir Shahamiryan, and his idea was to establish a republic in Armenia, the voting of which would take place by the baklan system, that is, with beans. Each candidate would have a jar to himself, and the electorate would place beans in the corresponding jars. By eight p.m., just by looking at a jar, or weighing it, I guess you'd be pretty sure who'd won...
Well, it was awfully tiring, but I have to say I was terribly impressed, and felt proud, because, before going in as an observer, I was expecting to see the most khaydarag, utterly ridiculous things as usual, and I was even looking forward to a nice fight with the authorities, but things went so smoothly, it was so clean, so just... I mean, I've been hearing reports from elsewhere, and the Lord alone knows what we are to expect in the next few weeks in terms of accusations and rallies, but all I know is, I have not lost my faith in the Armenian people and democracy, as I expected I would.
posted by Nareg at 1:54 PM
<< Home