Blue fingers for Iraqi voters

December 30, 2005 5:26 PM

I recently noticed that an Iraqi man that I know, here in California, had a blue ink finger like voters in Iraq had.

Do Iraqi voters here in the U.S. get the blue ink treatment too? I would have asked him myself but we only meet in passing.

posted by snsranch to Education (9 answers total)

Best answer: Yes. The local paper here showed a photo, and had interviews, with several Iraq citizens who had voted here and had the blue ink finger.
posted by SuzySmith at 5:27 PM on December 30, 2005

Response by poster: Wow, that's amazing. It looked as though he had tried to scrape it off. I wonder what kind of social stigma one might feel from having the blue finger while not being in Iraq. I would be proud to have voted but I guess since I'm not imagining things, I should just ask him how he feels.
posted by snsranch at 5:41 PM on December 30, 2005

The polling place was in a restaurant out in El Cajon.
posted by Mr T at 5:58 PM on December 30, 2005

James Lileks sent his daughter to school with a purple finger as a show of support (I think).

I know it's been answered already, just had to add this.
posted by unixrat at 6:05 PM on December 30, 2005

Lileks is such a tool.

Man, presumably people here could just use IDs or something (I mean, they would have had to show their ID to vote anyway) How embarrassing.

I don't think Indians voting overseas need to use the ink.
posted by delmoi at 6:38 PM on December 30, 2005

Earlier discussion of the purple ink, and its indelibility claims. The ink, and other election software, all came from the same Canadian company, so presumably overseas voting was identical for consistency's sake -- or there wasn't (as with India) an extant process to change.
posted by dhartung at 11:58 PM on December 30, 2005

Man, presumably people here could just use IDs or something (I mean, they would have had to show their ID to vote anyway) How embarrassing.

Not really. If you were living abroad and wanted to vote, would you follow the other country's voting procedures? Anyway, Iraqis in Britain followed the same process, although there were accusations in Birmingham that someone was lurking around the polling station with a bottle of solvent.
posted by holgate at 5:49 AM on December 31, 2005

Why is it embarrasing? I get a blue finger each election and carry it proudly. Why would you be ashamed to vote?
posted by signal at 6:10 AM on December 31, 2005

Why is it embarrassing? I get a blue finger each election and carry it proudly. Why would you be ashamed to vote?

I've got to second this. Why on earth would it be embarrassing? I've often thought that doing this in the US might be a good idea -- attach a marker and a bit of social stigma to all the lazy-ass non voters we have in this country (especially the ones who seem to think they have the right to tell other countries what to do.)
posted by anastasiav at 7:42 AM on December 31, 2005