Election in the United States

    I was proud to have an opportunity to be an observer of election in the United States. This is the first time I have been into a voting center and watch how people vote as it is forbidden in Malaysia where voters only were allow to enter the hall to cast their vote. Thus, I had never watched any voting in real life but I just know about the process theoretically and I found out that the voting processes in United States are quite similar to Malaysia’s. I think that it might because Malaysia and the United States are democratic countries so they have common voting process where people have the power to choose which party to govern their society and provide them better standard of living.

    On 2^nd of November, Davies Center in University of Wisconsin was used to be a voting center for the election on the day.  Before I enter the hall, I saw many people holding a form and queuing at the main entrance. Next, I saw that there are few senior citizens sat on a row and work as a reception to help those first timers who going to vote in registration and answer any questions if needed. I even saw few election observers too, but they were the party members who were sent by each party to observe the whole procedure and make sure there was no fraud and on the spot influence from any party to the voters. After the registrations, voters were brought to different ward whereby there is one ward for lower campus student and two wards for upper campus student. They were given a big piece of yellow card where they party’s name and candidates name was written one the card. Voters then hold the card and move to a row of table and start to vote. These tables were designed with obstacles on the two sides of the table to prevent voters to influence each other as some might just vote by following the person besides them. Next, the completed ballots were put into a machine that used to count the votes. It is a digital machine which shows an accurate figure on how many vote had been made.

    The whole process was so systematic and efficient. However, there is a difference in the rules between the United States and Malaysia is if a person is caught for voting more than once in United States, he will be sent into jail, but I had never heard about this in Malaysia.