Elections

Elections for the governor of Central Java were yesterday. I had a few funny conversations with people about this.

Conversation 1.
Me: Did you vote today?
Hotjaga: Yup. (Shows me his pinkie finger)
Me: Did you vote for the winner?
Hotjaga: Nooo.
Me: Oh, sorry.
Hotjaga: I did it on purpose. When I went to vote, I saw that the other candidates had a lot of votes and I knew one of them would win, so I voted for someone who didn't have many votes. I felt bad for him.

Conversation 2.
Me: Did you vote yesterday?
Ibu Sri: Yes. (Shows me her pinkie finger)
Me: Who did you vote for?
Ibu Sri: All of them.
Me: What?
Ibu Sri: I voted for all the candidates. I didn't feel right picking just one.
Me: Okaaaaay.
Ibu Sri: My daughter voted for the first time! (Her daughter is mentally handicapped)
Me: Oh yeah?
Ibu Sri: She was really nervous. She didn't know who to vote for, so my husband told her to vote for candidate number 3. So she went in to vote, but when she came out, we asked who she picked, and she said she picked number 1 because he looked nicer.

Conversation 3.
Me: Did you vote?
Atik: Yes. (Shows me her pinkie finger)
Me: Did the person you picked win?
Atik: Well, I voted for all of them.
Me: You too?! You realize that's the same as not voting at all, right?
Atik: Yes, but it's my duty to vote.

About the pinkie finger thing, when you vote in Indonesia, they dip your pinkie finger in permanent purple ink so that you can't come back and vote again. It's kind of like a, "Kiss me, I donated blood today" sticker. That takes days to wash out from under your fingernail.