Monday, September 22, 2008

I'll take it

I've lived outside the US for almost my entire adult life, and I can only remember ever actually using a voting machine once. Well, not counting the old fashioned pull-the-lever machine they set up for us to try in middle school that time.

Most years - well, I'll be honest with you, every four years - I'm soliciting the absentee ballot, hoping it arrives, filling it out, mailing it back, and hoping it arrives on that end. And then hoping it's duly counted. Ahem.

This year, fortunately, there's a way to take some of the uncertainty out of the process. Democrats Abroad is sponsoring an event on Saturday where I can actually receive, vote and submit a Federal Write in Absentee Ballot, which will be mailed through the Embassy.

I won't be able to vote my full North Carolina ballot, but the NC Senate race is on there, and I'm willing to sacrifice the lower-level stuff for the added certainty (well, likelihood) that my federal vote will make it to where it needs to be this year.

And I'm taking the kids with me.

4 comments:

Jennifer September 23, 2008 5:16 AM  

Just like you, I can only remember ever entering a voting booth once, my first Presidential election! I was in college. Since then, it's been the absentee ballot every time. And I always wonder if it gets there.

But then I vote in New York State and my candidates almost always win there.

Jennifer September 23, 2008 7:01 AM  

That must be nice.

The whole absentee ballot frustration has always been partly compounded and partly allayed by the fact that my vote, should it arrive and be tabulated, would never have made a difference anyway.

I understand North Carolina may actually be in play this year, though, so it's all that much more important.

Anonymous September 23, 2008 9:51 AM  

Where we vote there's not even a booth anymore. It's like you walk up to a touch screen and do your thing. No curtain, no lever. People could see what you're voting for if they looked. On ours they have a paper printout that records everything you do. The printout is under plastic, so you can't mess with it, but you can see that it's there.

The Cunning Runt September 23, 2008 6:16 PM  

I hate to say this, but in a great many of These United states, absentee ballots are either across-the-board challenged or plain old boxed up and forgotten about unless there's a MAJOR problem with the domestic count.

I was genuinely shocked and dismayed to hear that. I hope I've been misinformed.

I did, however, hear Mark Crispin Miller talk today about election fraud and electronic vote rigging, and just posted about it.

If you're having an otherwise good night, I can't in good conscience recommend reading that one.

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