Absentee Voting

Oddly enough this is the first time that we have registered to vote Absentee. For the most part we've been in the states for voting that I feel I need to do (more on that to follow). This afternoon my list said to apply for an abesentee ballot so I googled "Absentee voting" and without surprise the first hit I got was the one I needed. Federal Voting Assistance Program which gives you all the skinny and forms to register and recieve an absentee ballot. Isn't that great? Cruising through the info on mailing back the form I saw that I could fax or email the application to recieve an absentee ballot. Terrific. Then I read the asterix which informed me that I could only fax or email the application if I was registered to vote in the city of Chicago or Suburban Cook County! That is the biggest load of junk I've heard in quite awhile. And so yet again your freedom is insured but we'll do a better job at maintaining and securing your freedom if your from Chicago because we know that Chicago has never screwed up voting before. Surely technology will help that situation. In the end though, I'm happy to send my application through the mail and even pay for the postage out of my own pocket (they have an envelope I could print for paying the postage but that sounds like asking for problems) because I like the idea of sending mail to the Coles County Clerk. I think she'll get a kick out of recieving mail from our neck of the woods.

By "we've been in the states for voting I feel I need to do" I mean that I don't know that its right for me to vote in local state elections when really I don't reside there. Do you really want me to pick your school board member? Your County Clerk? Your Town Council Person? The school board referendum? The new water treatment plant? These are the people who decide how your property taxes are spent and I don't pay property taxes nor am I helped or hurt by how your property taxes are spent. I personally think any time a school board referendum is on the ballot you should vote to spend more money on schools and any time the folks think they need to spend money on water treatment you should agree. Who doesn't want better schools and cleaner water? I know it comes with a price tag but I want those things and I'm worth it, so are you. See, you don't want me making those choices because you might think the school board is bad at managing its money and the water treatment plant didn't improve after the last round of money that we gave them. And how would I know if that's true from here?

And why am I labeling this post under blessings? Because I think its a tremendous honor to vote. I love voting. I get excited on election day. Its the greatest exercise of liberty, to my way of thinking. I've lived in places where I explain the concept and people at once smile and shiver. Smile to think of the freedom, shiver to think of the retrbitution if they ever mentioned the idea. Go Vote, excerise a little liberty.