Today was a big day (see also: upcoming post on surgery post-op).
I voted for the first time ever. I became a citizen last year, and sure I could've voted in the primary (but I didn't/still haven't got my voter info and thought I wasn't registered!)
I was very emotional and excited. This was surprising, because even as recently as the beginning of college I was very apathetic about politics. I was apathetic because I disagreed with everything. Now everything I disagree with makes me so upset that I have no option but to get up and try to do something about it, be it trying to get people to vote, getting those who don't usually read up on news and politics to do so, or just getting out and voting myself.
I went to a church up the street (from my parent's house in Dunwoody, where I am registered, ) which is kinda funny because my neighbor across the street votes at the high school and my dad votes at another church because he never changed his address to our new one (even though we've lived here for almost 6 years.)
My dad has been bugging me about this election for a few weeks now. A Bill O'Reilly watching, Rush Limbaugh listening conservative republican, he and I don't generally see eye to eye when it comes to politics. This morning as I was leavning, he told me that if I voted Democrat then he would leave me out of his will. I did anyway. I think it's funny that he's thinks the way he does, because he's not a rich old white man and we came to America for all the "freedom" that you get here, which includes making up my own mind and voting for whoever I want. Plus, there's not much in his will anyway (it would probably be a little better if the whole republican thing were working out for him.)
I went in, there were no lines, it was relatively easy. I was a little bothered by the whole thing, though. The Diebold logo everywhere
made me feel a little sick to my stomach, especially since there was no option to print out my result. I checked my answers over and over. Looked ok, but who knows what happens in those machines.
I put a lot of time reading into the candidates and issues and even printed up my cheat sheet including reasons why to take with me. I recommend the
AJC's voters guide. In general I am no fan of the AJC, but I must say they did a great job presenting the necessary info in an easy to browse manner. Much better than opening each single candidate's webpage. At one point Firefox was tired of have 30 tabs open, so thanks AJC.
The offices I spent the most time on were secretary of state and school superintendent. I wanted someone who would guarantee a paper trail. The democrat did but the republican wouldn't come out and say it, although she championed herself for being the only one with a "plan" (that was incredibly vague and didn't have many action items) for voting procedures in Georgia. For school superintendent I went with the liberterian. I know, of course, that this splits the vote from the democrat and that the republican incumbent will most likely be re-elected, but he was the only one who had clear action items that I agreed with and also wanted to make the position appointed so that it could be bipartisan in the future. To run for an office and want to get rid of it? That takes balls. The governor was a no-duh for me. Not only does it seem that good ol' Sonny is a little dirty, he never really made points in debates versus Mark Taylor. Not only that, but he's always been reducing Hope scholarship. Funding for education is a big one with me. Reduce it and you're on my bad side (hear that, Dubya?) I actually did vote for one republican, for the office of labor commissioner. He had it way more together than the other guy, plus he was a Tech grad.
I also considered the constitutional amendments and referendums carefully. Except for the whole amend the constitution "
to protect the traditions of fishing and hunting." Seriously? You know you live in Georgia when...
Jen Lee
spoke of the election on her blog and mentioned that California recommends voting absentee so that you get a paper ballot. I've been told by others that while this is true, sometimes the absentee ballots don't get counted (although illegal) unless it's a close election. This wouldn't surprise me in this state. So, what does one do? Go the day of and leave the fates to Diebold, or, vote absentee and risk not being counted at all?
All in all, I suppose I'm excited to participate in the government of this country (that sentence was really hard for me to construct without being negative about the government or the direction of the country, by the way). I look forward to doing it in '08.
Except then my vote
really won't count, thanks electoral college and red state.
