In Which JJason Hopes You're Forgiving Of Not Actually Completing the Task

Of course, I didn't attend my local caucus and vote in the presidential primaries soley in the pursuit of points. Of course not. I did it for... you know... the love of democracy. The sheer joy of being part of the political process and having my voice heard...

Ok, to be honest I pretty much hate politics. It's boring and I'm perfectly willing to let others make the important decisions for me. I stand by idly as my country, as the world, slides into destruction and the legacy of freedom and self government collapses around me. I do not deserve the gift of freedom that my forefathers fought and died for. I have brought shame to my family, my community, and my nation.

With that established, I did indeed travel down to my local caucus here in Minnesota to vote in the democratic caucus. I'd never been to a caucus before, being from the Massachusetts originally, so this was a new experience for me. Before I went, I prepared four notes to leave for other voters. Despite the previously mentioned feelings about politics, I wanted to make them happy, so I went with the direct and happy theme of celebration of the act of voting*. So I made big colorful messages embelished with stars and smiles and happy things. On the backs I included another smiley and a tiny like "SF0" for people who took the time and effort to flip over the notes.

With that done there was nothing to do but to go down to the caucus. Now as I mentioned before, I don't like politics and I had never caucused before. Now, that I have done so I can say that I will almost definitely do so again. Because while I don't like politics, I love rituals. Rituals are great - I love it when people get together to perform actions dramaticaally unconnected to their normal lives, operating under commonly understood rules different than those that normally proscribe behavior. I love liminal spaces. They're great. Being a dangerous nihilist myself, I don't have access to America's number 1 source of rituals, so I'm forced to get my rituals where I can. And the caucus was a wonderful ritual.

When I first arrived, I had to wait in a huge long line. This line went halfway around the block and this was with two entrances to my voting place. Luckily the line moved pretty quickly, which swept me into the Junior Highschool where I was voting. Once inside it was an absolute madhouse - it was absolutely packed full of people, all moving around, many of them holding signs or otherwise engaging in political influence. With the help of one of these people I was able to find out where I was to be voting, but actually finding this place took me a couple of circuits up and down the extremely crowded hallway.

When I finally did find my location, my heart sunk - there weren't any booths! I had participated in the political process and had my voice heard for naught. But I did not let this stop me. After voting (which involved navigating through the extremely crowded room, finding a flat service to write down my name and address, navigating back, and then voting), I decided to distribute my notes anyway, putting them in places where I thought voters might find them.

Distributing the notes was a little interesting because I didn't want to be caught - I'd have a hard time explaining what exactly I was doing. I found it useful to take a picture of the scene and then look down at my camera, pretending to be reviewing the picture while placing and photographing the note. I successfully placed all of my notes and then left.

So technically I didn't complete the task as described. But I did something similar, so I've decided to submit it anyway. Cause, you know, whatever.
 
*There's a whole complicated political science thing that I encountered once, stating that given that your ability to affect the system with your vote is so unspeakably small, the vast majority of your incentive to vote is the personal satisfaction you get out of the process. So I suppose that this task actually helps encourage voting doubly - getting the tasker to vote but also by likely increasing the personal pleasure that a person gets out of the action themselves. This thought process didn't effect my own tasking in anyway, but I thought it was interesting.