Not too long ago, I moved to Pennsylvania permanently so I could live with my wife after we got married. Naturally, when moving somewhere permanently, you must change your address, inform government agencies, all the good stuff.

So I found myself standing in the Department of Motor Vehicles on a Saturday morning. The Pennsylvania DMV is unusual in that you can go other places to get your car licensed (at a higher cost); they don't usually do that sort of work. This may explain why the people there were nice.

So, I was there to get myself a new driver's license. My wife was with me, having put off this chore far too long. She was ahead of me in the queue for photographs.

After getting your picture taken, you get to register to vote (Remember Political Parties? The writeup's about Political Parties). She is not as politically inclined as I, and she asked me, "Which should I pick? The Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the Libertarian Party, the Constitution Party, none, or other.

Like most people who use computers, I'm curious about the unusual options in an install program. "Choose other."

The message that came up was something to the effect of 'look at the clerk's monitor for the list'. There were many names on the list. They had the Communist Party. They had the National Socialist Party, as well as the Nazi Party. But these things were not the true horror.

Among the names on the screen:

Where the heck did these parties come from? Do people sign up for them, just like people unknowingly sign up for a company called I don't know when picking a long distance carrier?

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