> > I found the election process to be very quick and easy. How quick? The span of time from when I left my house and when I got back to it was eight minutes (according to my roommate) or ten minutes (by my estimate). How easy?
> > 1) Hand in my voter card.
> > 2) Get them to fix my middle initial for future use in the permanent voters list.
> > 3) Get my ballot.
> > 4) Spend ten seconds pretending to come from Florida and trying to decipher the ballot.
> > 5) Realize that there is a list of names on ONE side, perfectly lined up with a set of circles, and that the desired method of marking your choice is to mark an "X" in the appropriate circles with a pencil.
> > 6) Realize that there is a pencil in the voting booth.
> > 7) Pick up the pencil.
> > 8) Mark my choice.
> > 9) Resist the urge to steal the three inch HB pencil from the voting booth.
> >
>
> Eh. Now I'm wondering just how standardized the ballot is, across Canada -- as seen in Florida, American elections don't have a uniform design method across the U.S. The ballot paper in Quebec was a black and white card printed on kraft paper (i.e. on a backing of brown wrapping paper). On my ballot card, the black background had white labels on the left-hand side for the candidates' names, while on the right, each party/name had a large nickel-sized white circle lined up for my 'X'. Then the right-hand side of the ballot folded over twice to cover my choice as I handed it back to the elections officer, who removed part of the ballot tag(?) and handed the card back to me so that I could put it into the ballot box.
>
> The pencil I used, incidentally, was also three inches long. Sounds about right...?
>
> It took Dave and me about ten seconds each to vote, too. The longest part was looking at the names of the candidates for the Marxist-Leninist and Marijuana Parties, who had managed to make quota in getting their names on the ticket alongside the other five major Parties. Hey, whatever happened to the good old Rhino Party?
>
>
> > 10) Return to the voting station with the completed ballot and put it into the box.
> > 11) Go home.
> >
> > [...] I like rambling. Anyone else care to join me?
> >
> > Don

According to news reports, Canada held an election and (almost) nobody showed up to vote.
We (US) should be so lucky.
Howard