Absentee ballot

[beetiger]

I just got back home from voting this morning. I drove the half hour to the county Board of Elections, and I requested an absentee ballot, and I filled the little circles in with a pen, and I put it in its envelope and signed it and handed it to a friendly if kind of tired looking lady. There's something very satisfying about a paper ballot somehow, even if "voting" to me has always meant the click-click of levers, ever since they gave me the little practice machine in junior high school and I wondered why people needed to practice pulling levers.

In any case, I'll be driving out to Chester County in Pennsylvania for Election Day and the few days leading up to it, for canvassing and driving people to the polls and having a little solidarity with a group of people who really care about trying to get the country going in a better direction. I have to believe that maybe it could make a difference.

Four years ago, I had a tiny little nursing baby, and the weather was cold, and I was depressed and not really motivated to do much except for try to live my life day to day somehow. My girlfriend made a big deal of taking a chunk of time off work and driving with a bunch of people down to Florida to canvass, and I was very proud of her, but it seemed like a world I just could not be part of. Now I've got a kindergartener who is perfectly okay with letting Daddy take him on and off the school bus, feed him dinner, and put him to bed for a few days, and I don't feel like maybe I kind of want to be part of this. I feel like I really need to be part of this.

Maybe it will be a waste. Maybe I'll find myself hanging around a volunteer office which knows how to collect people more than it knows how to use them. Maybe I'll be knocking on doors alone and people will be angry and frustrated and I'll be cold and lonely and my depression will kick in. But I hope I'll be connected, and motivated, and ultimately be a little piece of helping to turn the country I love back around in a direction I want to see it going.

Wish me luck. Wish us all luck.

Comments

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

wishing, wishing!

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

I wish you luck in having a fulfilling experience and, as you have in the past in other circumstances, knowing the delight of changing and enriching the minds of others.

As for wishing us all luck, I'm not sure we need it: we have points on the board. :D But we do need people to make sure we keep them, and I'm grateful...

Voting

[sheherazahde.livejournal.com]

I love the NY lever machines. They are farely idiot proof since they won't let you vote for more than one person for the same position. Although it easy to miss the ballot initiatives at the top.

People have been complaining about how old the machines are but they are straightforward mechanical devices and I think they have aged well.

I undestand the reason they can't use such machines in FL or CA is that they have too many choices, our machine can't handle them all.

[latzoni.livejournal.com]

That sounds awesome! You should be very proud of yourself.

[autumnquest.livejournal.com]

I think that's awesome you're doing that. Got hope?

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

Luck. So much fucking luck. For you and me and all of us doing the work, and for our whole country.

I'm so glad you're doing this.

*tight hugs*

[stellans.livejournal.com]

Four years ago was the first time I really got actively involved in trying to elect a president... I mean really involved, working etc. I was so angry about the direction Bush had taken our country, and I felt guilty because I hadn't really cared that much about Gore at that time, either. I wanted Dr. Dean to be our president and get us back on track. The Democratic Party broke my heart that year, nominating John Kerry, who is a good man but wrong for this particular point in our history. The Rovians were afraid of Dr. Dean. They were ready for Kerry.

This year I am again actively working to elect a President, again not my first choice but I think he'll be exactly what our country needs. Yay for you, for me, and for all those other truly energized volunteers out there trying to save us from ourselves.