Voting Today
Where I live, it’s election day. Primary, of course. I take my civic responsibilities very seriously, so I’m planning to vote. Thing is, I don’t know how in the heck I’m going to manage it.
My parents voted early this morning. They were there before the polls opened at 7, and they didn’t actually get to a voting machine until 8:00. It was 8:15 before they finished voting — and they had a sample ballot already marked. I’m sorry, but an hour and a quarter?! That’s nuts!
See, we’ve got all the mid-term federal elections, plus the local judicial races — apparently this is the year that every judge and chancellor in the city and county has to be re-elected. As well as the state governor, the county mayor, the court clerks, city charter commission, county board of commissioners … and so on. The ballot is freakin’ huge! See here. Now, isn’t that ridiculous? Check out the page size: it’s 24 x 24!
Anyway. I’m going to try to vote on my lunch break. I don’t know if it will work, but I take my lunch a little later than most folks, so maybe I’ll get lucky. Or maybe they will close the office early today to let everyone vote. That would be nice. Close at 3 so everyone can do their civic duty. (I can dream, can’t I?)
I have unbreakable, unmissable appointments from 5 to 8:30, and the polls close at 7. So I have to try this at lunch. Which may make me a bit late getting back to the office. Which will be bad because I’ve had something every day this week at lunch time that has kept me from having lunch with my kids and caused me to get back to the office late. I’d like a normal, unhurried day, please.
2 Comments
If you know the candidates and issues – vote. If you don’t, then your vote could go to a rascal worse than the ones in office.
Voting is a big deal to me, Mom drummed it into my head that women should never miss the chance. She was 16 when women got the right to vote in this country, and said unless we do so, we risk losing the right. Not taking any chances. 🙂
But, see, that’s my other worry….
There are more than 300 candidates! It would be a full-time job for eight weeks or more to research each of the candidates and the issues! No one, not even people who don’t have to go to work every day, has the time to research 300 candidates in 8 weeks! It’s almost a sneaky means of disenfranchisement: overwhelm the voters with a 13-page ballot in 10-point type, and they’ll vote for the first name they see.
I talked to my lawyer about the judges, and he gave me advice on the ones he knew. But what about the other ones? What about the clerks and registrars and stuff? What “issues” are there? How can I find out how well the incumbents have done in the position? Do I care if someone who believes differently from me on, say, abortion is elected as county clerk? Is the person’s stance on abortion going to affect how the drivers’ licensing stations are run?