Presence

So, I voted. I'm very uncomfortable with the new machines. Baltimore County is using the Diebold Touch Screen machines, as pictured on the news. First off, the octogenarian who gave me my card spends three minutes looking for GRESHMAN before I calmly point out that it's GERSHMAN.

So I get to the machine, and it says, "Push your card in until the light turns green." So I put my card in, the machine makes all sorts of strange noises, the light turns yellow, spits out my card, and the screen displays a message, "Trouble reading SmartCard, please see assistant." So I get some assistance; I don't know what this guy did, but within 10 seconds he gave me a new card (I turned around to look back at the machine, and he handed me a card). I have no idea if this was a new card, or he cleaned my original one, or what. Anyway, I put this card in, and the ballot comes up, but the light is still yellow, and my assistant has moved on. Oh well. I hit some buttons, my card ejects, and I give it to the octogenarian judge, who, in an attempt to stick an "I Voted" sticker on my shirt as I breeze out the door, smacks me in the chin. In other words, par for the course for a day at the Pikesville Polls. All in all, I was at the polls for maybe seven minutes, tops.

I did little to no research on the "other" positions up for vote, mostly because it doesn't matter. Pipkin vs. Mikulski? Cardin vs. Whoever? Money for this, that and the other? Not a clue. So I did something that I'm normally opposed to. I surrendered to Da'as Torah. R. Nueberger, may he live and be well, published his list of likely choices (not endorsements, challilah v'chas; that would jeopardize Ner's tax-exempt status). Rather than take the time to inform myself as to the issues, wade through the mounds of mud slung up by both sides, I chose to surrender my intellect and judgement to Da'as Torah. I don't do this often, and I'll have to admit, it was oddly satisfying. Surrendering one's will, carrying out instruction from higher authority without need for thought or understanding left me in a peace and traquility, practically an anaesthetized state, not unlike the feeling one has immiedietly before a colonoscopy. It was liberating and horrifying at the same time. I understand the allure, yet am frightened by the prospect.