That Absentee Thing Worked!
About 8 days ago, I realized that I was going to be out of town for the Virginia primary - an election that I increasingly cared about. I'd never voted absentee before, and I started to shrug off the opportunity, thinking that it was likely to require me to jump through many, many hoops.
Turns out, it's yet another thing that my county does with great efficiency. Last Wednesday, I walked down to the County Building. I approached the counter on the third floor, and the Assistant Registrar handed me a form, explaining quickly but thoroughly how to complete it. I wrote in my name, checked the "business travel" box as my reason for absentee voting, and signed my name (affirming that I would actually be traveling.) He took the form and my Voter Registration Card to his computer, typed in some magic, and returned both to me. I walked down the hall, handed in the form, stood at a standard voting machine, and voted.
I even got a sticker that said, "I voted absentee today!"
Yesterday, Mark went to our standard polling place. His name is right next to mine on the rolls, and he could see the designation "AB", letting the poll workers know that I had already voted, so that my candidates (Obama) couldn't get another boost from me.
I love it when systems work the way they should!
Now, if the snow will stop falling in Chicago and the freezing rain stop falling in DC long enough for my plane to get from one to the other this evening, I'll truly be a happy girl...
Mindy, heading up to the 80th floor of the Sears Tower, for another day of watching the snow fall *up* due to prevailing local weather conditions...
Turns out, it's yet another thing that my county does with great efficiency. Last Wednesday, I walked down to the County Building. I approached the counter on the third floor, and the Assistant Registrar handed me a form, explaining quickly but thoroughly how to complete it. I wrote in my name, checked the "business travel" box as my reason for absentee voting, and signed my name (affirming that I would actually be traveling.) He took the form and my Voter Registration Card to his computer, typed in some magic, and returned both to me. I walked down the hall, handed in the form, stood at a standard voting machine, and voted.
I even got a sticker that said, "I voted absentee today!"
Yesterday, Mark went to our standard polling place. His name is right next to mine on the rolls, and he could see the designation "AB", letting the poll workers know that I had already voted, so that my candidates (Obama) couldn't get another boost from me.
I love it when systems work the way they should!
Now, if the snow will stop falling in Chicago and the freezing rain stop falling in DC long enough for my plane to get from one to the other this evening, I'll truly be a happy girl...
Mindy, heading up to the 80th floor of the Sears Tower, for another day of watching the snow fall *up* due to prevailing local weather conditions...
I'm also pushing for an all-mail-out ballot, as our voting numbers see huge increases with mail ballots done in the past. It worries people that it might not be secure enough, but with our signature and state ID checks, it actually is about as secure as voting at the polls.
I am determined to vote in the presidential election this year (having not lived in the US since I was four, I'm pretty sure I'm not eligible to vote in anything else), and I'm just starting to locate all the forms and stuff now. It's a complicated process to vote from outside the US. And the forms ask some weird questions: What "race" am I (they don't give options, so I'm not even sure what the possibilities are!), and why do they need to know that?
Caucasian, Alaskian, African American, Native American, that sort of thing.
As for why, my guess is for general concensus , to see which demographic is voting which way.
;^)
I find that the more I learn about the American electoral system, the more bewildering I find it. Around here you get a card in the mail, turn up at your polling place (or the advance poll), put an X on a ballot with a pencil, fold up the ballot and put it into a box. Not that the results are any better -- last time we elected Stephen "Any second now I'm going to dislocate my jaw and eat a guinea pig" Harper as PM :P
I think they go out of their way to make it confusing. Then wonder why we get mad at them when they screw up the counting.}:P
Be safe coming home!