I wish I'd thought of that.

In the post-election analysis at The Greenhouse today (and specifically, the embarrassingly low 41% turnout), one of our associates said that he had a dilemna while voting:

- he didn't like any of the local candidates.
- he wanted to exercise his right to vote.
- voting for a "joke" candidate wasn't an option, what with the aforementioned "glorious four-year plan to purge homelessness."
- he didn't want to spoil his ballot, since he preferred not to appear illiterate.

So, he went to the voting registration desk, and requested that he officially decline his ballot. As you can imagine, it took the volunteers at the desk more than a little while to find the proper response in their official handbook. At the end, though, my colleague was able to successfully decline his vote without abusing his voting privileges.

My buddy MJ heard this story, too, and thought about it for a second.

"You know," he said, "you'd think it would be easier than that, since all our ballots were de-Kleined a few years ago."

If I didn't know that he actually reads this blog every couple of months, I would totally be taking credit for that line right now.