9 days 15 hours 33 minutes 36 seconds left until November 4, 2008 8:00:00 and I still haven’t received my ballot. Tomorrow of course we’ll be down to 8 days (should I receive it) and then down to 7 days when I can place it in the mail or drop off location- and once more that’s IF I receive it tomorrow.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that my state has spoken- and it spoke in my voice, so I guess at this point the action of voting will me more of a symbol or just going through the motions to say, “Hey look at me voting!” My vote for the presidential election is pointless right now, but there are still the measures I need to go through and apply my weight on the ones I’m for or against.
I feel like I missed the bus and I’m waving my support in some lounge with a few other people who also got to the station just a little too late. For those of you who will receive your ballots within this next week, vote for me: Dawn Masuoka for President. A vote for me is a vote for you- so if you like and trust yourself, then you’ll like and trust me. If you feel that I’m corrupt and will bring down the country, then perhaps you have issues and you need to re-examine your own life and THEN vote for me once you decide that you’re a-ok after all.
Do they actually send you a ballot, or just a registration card? Here (Dallas) they send a registration card. I just got mine yesterday, because I had forgotten to fill in one of the fields on the application, but they were very nice and called me on the telephone a few days ago to get the extra info. I wasn’t sure it was really an official call and was kind of reluctant to give out any info over the phone.
But you don’t need the registration card to vote, even though the election workers apparently don’t always know that and may try to send you away if you don’t have it, so may have to insist on speaking to someone higher in the food chain. You can cast a provisional ballot without having the card. Or so I’ve been told. Of course, I may have been told about local rules rather than national ones.
But like you, I’m beginning to wonder if there’s much point in it.
Here in Oregon you can ONLY vote by mail- and I’m a prime example of why it’s a flawed system.
“Oregonians are used to this setup. They’ve been voting by mail in some elections for 30 years, says Moore, and in all elections since 2000. But it has required some fundamental breaks with the way most Americans think elections should be conducted.
“We got rid of that big reform that guaranteed secrecy in the voting booth,” he says, “and got rid of the idea that no one can come between you and directly placing your ballot in the box — a sealed locked box.”
Yes, the ballot here is like any other piece of mail: You can give it to someone else to drop off, says Moore.
“What happens if the Democrat comes by, picks up your ballots, and knows you’re Republican and doesn’t turn it in?” he says. “There’s that caution there but there’s also that idea that it’s the community and that ‘Yeah, I’ll turn it in. I’ll turn in your ballot when I go down by the box.’ ”
Pay the gas bill, RSVP to a cousin’s wedding and determine the future of the country — all in one easy trip.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90354956
No self-serve for gas … voting only by mail … Oregon is truly down the rabbit-hole!
A friend’s parents from Oregon are regular visitor here, and I’m used to hearing how everything here compares poorly to Oregon. (For example: The Texas State Fair, sure that’s okay … but not like the Oregon Country Fair!) Of course, for all I know, it may be true. Frankly, I can see some advantages in the voting-by-mail thing, since I’d probably be much more likely to actually do it.
Yeah, the lack of choice is absolutely wonderful. Are your friends parents trying to convince you or themselves that Oregon is an okay place to live?
Dark Dawn alert! My child, brooding over politics has made you cynical.
I’m sure they’re sincere. (They’re kind of former hippie-types who seem to have accidentally came into money due to increases in real-estate values. I guess they satisfy their cravings for what they think of as a more natural lifestyle in Oregon, and then commute to San Francisco for the ballet and what-not. Money probably insulates them from a lot of problems.) I assume by “lack of choice” you mean the lack of choices in entertainment, eateries, etc., that you get in places like L.A. or New York?
Anyhow, the next time anyone tells me I should go there, I’ll say: Dawn says no! They’ll have absolutely no response to that.
Yes. It’s the politics that made me cynical although at no point were any mentioned except my lack of having ability to vote because I have to wait for my ballot to be delivered.
No- it’s no secret that I’m not a big fan of Oregon or Oregonians (actually it’s everything South of Portland- well, more like South of Wilsonville) or California and Californians in fact most of West Coast I find to be filled with granola eating phonies who couldnt survive their way out of parking lot should there be a black out- regardless of the time of day. Happenstance landed me here and I working on correcting that geographical error.
Right- I’m so plastic that I shout ‘no choice’ because we have limited eateries. Lack of choice i.e. the option to pump your own gas or how to vote- you know, the topic that was at hand? It was a mockery. Never assume and never place NY in the same sentence as that Southern Cali place.