Here are my buttons and they have all been pressed

[lar_laughs]

I voted today. It's been awhile since I've voted. I think I voted in the election before last one. Personally, I'm not that impressed with voting for anything on a national level. You can NOT tell me my vote counted when it was done on a piece of paper an hour and a half before the election was called. On a state level, you bet it counted. That's the real reason I voted. I don't want the Education Props to even remotely get a foothold here.

But let me tell you about my small town voting story.

I walked in at 7:25pm, pretty much on the dot. There were seven people in the room, not counting myself. Three sat behind the 8 ft folding table. Three were at the voting booths (there were a whole whomping FIVE booths). One was filling out paperwork.

I walked up to the first lady and said, "My mom wrote a note that says that I can vote because I live at her house and she left it here with you when she voted earlier."

I do not shit you when I tell you that she answered back, "Which one are you?" And there was a pile of notes. So I wasn't the only one who had to have a note from her mommy that says I can vote! Well, register really. See above and the not voting in the last election.

I filled out the paper work. I handed it in. The lady said, "Oh, you're the girl who sang at Pat's funeral." Yes. Yes, I am. I got my voting slips (what DO we call them?) and went to the one open spot. I filled out the first circle with my trusty pencil. SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH. I fill out the second circle with my trusty pencil. SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH.

And then I realized that no one else is making any SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH noises. Now, this isn't a big year for Idaho. We had three referendums (and one of those three had three issues) to vote on but they were all fairly cut and dry. In total, I think I filled out 12 dots.

The entire time I spent at my booth was two minutes, really... and that was only because I couldn't figure out who to put in the Write-In area for County Commission because do I REALLY want Lord Voldemort to be in that seat? He would have been better than the guy who's running but NO ONE will run against him. I had a case of the nerves and felt it would be undignified to put either Lord Voldemort or Mickey Mouse so I just wrote ANYONE ELSE in the spot so that it wasn't blank.

I walked out before the rest of the voters that was at those polling booths and I swear that no one made SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH noises the entire time I was there. I felt like maybe I needed to check them for heart sounds or something.

But I'm feeling very MUH about the whole experience. I wish you had known me in college. I was so gung-ho about stuff. I cared. Now I don't because I like to feel that I matter and I don't matter in these elections. Not really. Those four electoral college votes are all that mattered and they got voted on much earlier in the day. It's just depressing.

But it's over and I can finally go on Facebook and not cringe at EACH AND EVERY post. Now we can go back to telling everyone and their mother what we had for lunch or what movie we went to see or anything that isn't screaming and ranting about how horrible the other "side" is. Both sides are pretty evenly matched to how horrible they are and how they aren't going to really fix what's broken. Until someone comes along and says, "Screw what the lobbyists are doing. Let's overhaul the whole system and do something that makes sense for once," I don't have much good to say about politics. And this will be the last you hear about it from me for another four years.

Comments

[hhhellcat.livejournal.com]

That's a brilliant story about your voting experience. LOL My mom runs the polling place in our district for the last four elections running, and before that she always worked them so I've grown up around elections. I don't think we're allowed to do that here, but I love that your town is small enough to allow it.

[lar_laughs.livejournal.com]

I guess it is a valid way for adult children to be verified when they register because the process is supposed to be "bring your license and a utility bill" of which I only have the license. In CO, you were registered when you get your license which makes SO much more sense.