As storms blew through Tennessee and many areas are dealing with the aftermath, some of the news about voting Super Tuesday was pushed aside.

Mother Nature will always trump politics, campers.

With that said, Ginger was at the polls on Tuesday and had a hell of a time. The post is rather lengthy and I encourage you to read it for a variety of reasons. First of all, it’s about more than what is on the surface. But for media purposes, I’m going to point out this. (You know, me being media editor and all.)

I asked if I was going to be arrested, and he said no. The Alderman had the Rutherford County Election Commissioner on her cell phone and he wanted to speak with me. Flabbergasted, I said, “Everybody, I put my phone away an HOUR ago…why am I being berated over and over for this?!? Fine, I’ll speak to him.”

He was quite friendly and explained that I shouldn’t have had a cell phone in the polling place, and that only the media can have cameras, but not regular citizens. I told him that I had gathered that from all of the commotion, but thanks for letting me know.

**Note that nobody at any time asked me if I had media credentials.**

There is some hesitation at this point about cell phones in many public situations. Michael Silence has been following this for awhile especially when it comes to sports blogging, which the sports powers-that-be aren’t too happy about. Ginger, in all respects, also used Twitter to report live about her dismay with the entire situation and made her voting experience quite unpleasant.

Things of note: taking photos for personal use to give voters a sense of security with their vote is happening. A recent movie called Uncounted brought to light this issue. (Christian Grantham did this as well on his voting experience.)

This is important. The age of citizens reporting in real time is happening. Utilizing tools available (such as video on cameras etc.) is a huge conversation going on in the political and media worlds.  There will be more conversation about this in coming months, I assure you.

With that said, why can I get a receipt from McDonalds and not from a voting machine?