Tuesday, June 8, 2010

I voted.

And it wasn't all that easy, either.  As I previously mentioned, there were some issues with my registration.  I didn't appear in the online database for registered voters in my county, nor had I received voting materials.  When I rang up the registrar, the nice lady in the office had no trouble at all concluding that I was, in fact, registered.  That night, I magically appeared in the online database.  (Although it still took another phone call a week later to get a sample ballot.)

So, today, I go off in search of my polling place.  (The church on the corner at the nearest stoplight.  Which would have been a bit easier if there weren't, in fact, three churches on that corner.  None of which had a big ol' "Polling Place" sign out in front, or the (traditional) American flag.)  Finding the right house of worship, I then had to find the right table (the "orange" one), only to give the woman my name and find that it wasn't in the rolls.

Come again?

She flipped pages where my last name ought to be and it wasn't there.  (Good thing I had my sample ballot with me, as she was inches away from sending me to the green and yellow tables to bother them.)  She then looked at the very last page -- a blue page listing "Supplemental registrations."  There were all of two people on it.  I was one of them.

They still needed to call a supervisor over, because, although I was on the "supplemental" page in the "by name" list, I didn't appear at all in the "by address" list, and the woman in charge of handing out ballots wanted to pawn a provisional ballot off on me because of it.  The supervisor had more sense, and let me vote a real live ballot and stick it in the real live machine.  (I think they purposely use little-old-lady volunteers so you won't go all postal on them when they screw up.  I mean, who is going to yell at a little old lady?  In a church?)

So, the supervisor let me vote, and the ballot-hander-outer (with nodded permission from the supervisor) handed over my "I voted" sticker.  Which I wear proudly, not so much because I voted, but because I figure my tax dollars actually go to pay for the sticker, so I'm damn well gonna wear it.

(The funny thing is, I nearly completely forgot to vote this morning.  I was lying in bed, hitting the snooze alarm for my sixth "ten more minutes" when the radio said something about, "At least we won't have to suffer through any more of those damn political ads," and I bolted upright and said, "Oh shit!  Voting!")

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