Third Parties - bring your own pen! (Score 2)

Just a little note on write-in votes:

This morning, my wife and I went to the local fire department in a nearby very small and very Republican town to vote. We both voted for Nader and hardly felt like Bush supporters as our state (Indiana) is a Bush state, so in this case if you dislike Bush and Gore, not voting for a 3rd party candidate you prefer truly feels like wasting your vote.

Anyhow, in the instructions on casting a write-in vote, it tells you to ask for a pen, but both my wife and I started wondering if this kind of violates the concept of the ballot being 'secret'.

I grabbed a pen as I went in, and the woman at the table helpfully explained write-in votes, and that writing in a vote for anyone but President is a waste because it won't be counted, so that was very nice, but it still kind of bugged me that they didn't just have a pen in the booth so it wouldn't have to be a big production.

Well, there are bigger things to worry about, sure, but to those of you doing a write-in, just remember to bring your own pen!