I've gotten really good at casting my absentee ballots. I bet Debbie at town hall, who is in charge of coordinating the absentee voting process, probably wonders who the heck I am and why I keep requesting my ballots at places further away each year.
Here is how the process works. Debbie e-mails me the ballots and all kinds of paperwork, but she also sends me a big yellow envelope that contains my ballot and a certified envelope in which to send back my ballot. The most difficult part of voting from afar is trying to figure out what the candidates stand for, and how I want to vote. Sometimes I check with my parents, but we differ on political opinions quite a bit. Candidate websites are ok, but some of these low level elections don't merit websites. So, I do a quick WI newspaper search. Sometimes I feel incredibly uninformed. Luckily I'm not terribly affected by who wins the County Executive seat.
Then I fill out the big paper ballot, always with a #2 pencil, fold it up and put it into the envelope. I have to fill out all kinds of information on the envelope, and find another US citizen who can act as my witness and also sign the envelope. Thankfully there is a steady stream of volunteers passing through my town. The envelope is prepaid for postage from within the United States, but I'm not in the United States. That, and the mailman said the white envelope had so much written on it in English that it would confuse the postal system here. So, I have to run to a tienda, buy a bigger envelope, address it, and then pay to mail in my vote. All with the added bonus of the fact that my vote has to arrive on or before election day to count....and it will only be counted if the election is close. Bah, it makes me feel like all the effort almost isn't worth it!
(The packet full of voting ballots and envelopes.)
(Cast by a military elector...er Peace Corps Volunteer....)
err.. Are you sure your ballot has to ARRIVE on or before election day? In the rest of the country it only has to be postmarked by election day - which is why tallies aren't official until two weeks+ after the election (because they are waiting on international ballots to arrive and be counted).
ReplyDeletePaying for the ballot sucks - costs me the USD equivalent of $2.50 because the envelope is oversized by JP standards. Fortunately this year they started doing email ballots so they save the postage and I can just print it (and give up my secrecy) and mail it in a regular $1.10 envelope.
Also, doesn't your county put together a voter's pamphlet that has position statements from all candidates and both sides of Initiatives, complete with websites for all?