Sunday, November 11, 2012

Manning the Florida Polls [Lusk] Blog Post 20


Manning The Polls

Election seasons are always very exciting. Whether you are enjoying the combat happening between your friends on Facebook, or waiting in line for several hours to cast your vote, it is nearly impossible to avoid the experience all together. And, it seems to me, the experience has divided itself into two parts. One part being the social media experience, and the second part being the voting experience.

It seems that during election season, all the ugly and hostile friends rise on Facebook and take their rightful place at the head of table of jerks. And I mean that in the best possible way. I think it’s awesome that we have a free platform in which to express our opinions, even if we do it in a disrespectful and uneducated way. I myself, felt the need to un-friend a handful of old friends as well as some family members (I had a cousin who says that ‘a vote for Obama is like a vote for terrorism’… where do you even begin with that?) So I do believe that this social media experience is a crucial part of it… but I’m not sure how you would ‘jar’ it up and put it in a museum. Especially since most of the drama on Facebook comes from close personal ties being loosened when you find out your friends political beliefs, so I’m not sure how you would do this in a exhibition.

So I wanted to think of another experience. Voting. The actually act of voting is a great experience. But the voting can be pretty boring… unless you are in Florida.

I propose that an exhibit is put up, very similarly to the Living Photos we saw in Indianapolis. But we bring alive an image of people waiting to vote in Florida. There were many problems with Florida’s voting system this year and people woke up as early as One O’clock in the morning to vote! How amazing would it be to be able to talk to these people! The dedication they must have! The commitment to the candidates they are voting for!

Not only that, but we would be able to get an unbiased opinion from them all, since it is a voting poll, we’ll have a great mix of people to talk to. People who strongly believe in one candidate or another, voters who don’t really care (which is important, although apathy is frustrating.)

So in this exhibit we would have 6 different kinds of characters waiting in line.

1.     The Obama supporter (older): This person believes in Obama completely. Believes that his economic issues and social liberty issues are all on the right track and will be able to debate anyone who says anything different.
2.     The Romney supporter (older): This person is behind Romney through and through and has debated many times with their friends that we must rebuild the economy first, then we can do social rights.
3.     The Obama supporter (younger): The enthusiasm that the younger generation brought to the Obama campaign will be represented in this. This character, like myself, won’t have much of a grasp on Obama’s financial issues, but knows that he believes in equality and that, this character believes, is first and foremost in the issues.
4.     The Romney supporter (younger): This character is basically the same thing as the Obama supporter (younger). Sort of a one-issue voter. Now, I’m not saying that all young people are one-issue voters, but the one-issue voters are being represented by the younger characters.
5.     Polling Advisor: This is the character that runs the polls. The other characters will complain to him about how long they’ve been waiting, ask why the machines are down, etc. He’ll be a completely neutral character and the only opinions on politics he’ll have is the importance of voting.
6.     The crazy canvassers: At a least ditch attempt, there’ll be a person with a sign begging you to vote for their candidate. Now, this can switch through out the day. Maybe one day it’s a Romney supporter, the next it’s an Obama pusher. And maybe even someone for the libertarian candidate. But the pressure from the outside world will be represented in this person.

There are absolutely a million more characters we could (and probably should) add to this to fairly represent the voting experience in a nutshell, but I’m hoping that these main ones will gives us a broad basic wash.

To tie the social media aspect into all of this, I propose that after visiting the living photo of the voting line, viewers can go into another room that has facts and post a Status on a fake media website. There’ll be several computers strewn about and anybody can make a status. Also, anybody can comment on them. So hopefully we’ll bring alive the stress from putting your opinions on a social media site and having them mocked or encouraged by friends and total strangers.


I know this is an obvious way to envelope the voting experience, but sometimes the obvious is the best. What better way to understand the experience than try and get to the heart of it. And, after having talked to my friends and family in Florida, it seems that the stress of voting there is something that can really magnify and focus the experience.


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