The hidden side-effect of voting
Did you vote during the last presidential election? I did, and I realized that registering to vote gives you more than a power to voice your choice. It adds you to a list that can be used by a variety of government agencies for a number of purposes. One of those is for jury duty selection, and I was called for it for the first time ever.
Okay, I realize that jury duty is supposed to be an honor and a civic duty and what not. But really, how many of us really look forward to being called for it? I don't. Yet I wonder how after so many years, my name finally made it in the pool. It had to be the registration to vote. The truth is that until the last presidential election, I had never voted, and therefore never bothered to register. Once I did however, my name went into the list, and jury duty found me.
This is not unlike companies selling their customer lists to others for the purpose of marketing, but at least in this case the government is not secretive about it. I should have done my homework to understand the process better. I'm not sure if knowing this information would have stopped me from voting, but since my chosen candidate didn't make it, it makes this jury duty call even harder to bear.
Related Tags:
- Related Entries
Technorati
Del.icio.us
Slashdot
Digg
Furl
Spurl
Listed below are links to sites that reference The hidden side-effect of voting:
Previous blog:
TrackBack – Blogs influencing the WebRobert Hashemian Home Page
Next blog:
Microsoft's race to search
RE: The hidden side-effect of voting
Joe :
February 4, 2005 3:48 PM
Robert,
With citizenship comes responsibility. One of the responsibilities of all citizens is to participate in the legal system. I can think of no one better than you to sit in the jury box and make an educated and unbiased decision based upon the evidence presented. It means everything to do so. A good VoIP to you and have fun...
P.S. Sorry that your choice lost in the election. Maybe if you sided with the winner you would not have been called