Why DID they ink up their fingers, anyway?

[tuvor]

Seriously, are there precedents for dirtying up a finger for a vote?

I'm dubious. After the SOTU salute last night, I'm wondering if it was all just for a visual meme.

So, in the meantime, have they done this in any other election you can think of?

[Dookus]

1. It was done to insure

that people didn't vote twice. Once you were inked, you couldn't vote again.

[Dickie Flatt]

3. The lack of running water ensures that they wont wash it off [n/t]

[Merlot]

2. At the SOTU they ran out of "purple heart bandaids" and

this was the next-best think they could think of. And cheap to, like the cheap shots they are so good at...

In other countries it stops people from voting more than once.

[tuvor]

4. I understand that's the idea.

I may be all wet, but I've never seen or heard of this done anywhere else.

Again, what other countries do it that way?

[vpigrad]

5. It was done to embarrass those that vote

Think of it as a type of scarlet letter. You know how the repukes love those scarlet letters.

[Heyo]

6. I dont know..

... but given what the insurgents had said, what with the slaughtering anyone who tried to vote and all, it took some cajones to come out there, vote, and dip that finger.

How hard would I be scrubbing that finger when I got home? :wow:

Heyo

[tanyev]

7. Because a really good gimmick

impresses most Americans a lot more than intellect and sound reasoning.

[Merlot]

8. So true!

And that's probably written on the first page of the repub handbook of politics.

[prodigal_green]

9. I believe they did the same thing in Afghanistan

but the ink washed off so people were able to vote more than once.

[losingit]

10. There Hasn't Been a census for over 30 years.

There was no way to really check names or if people were REAL. So they made a visual way to keep the Iraqies from pulling a Shrub.