a civic duty

Today - November 2, 2010 - is Election Day. For me, this was the first time voting. Granted, I technically could have voted in the primary, but I didn't get registered in time. Oops. Anyway, I have first-time voter observations.

First off, my little hometown is an annoying enigma. It's half a mile south of the county border. So if we wanted to vote somewhere besides in our hometown, we'd have to go south at least ten-fifteen minutes. BUT we can't do that, either. Why? Our state and federal district line lies DIRECTLY BETWEEN our community and the closest community. So the ONLY place we can vote is in our hometown.

I have to leave at 6:30 AM for school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

So...we were at the polling place by about 6:05 AM. My alarm went off at 5:00. I was about ready to throw my alarm clock (read: phone) across the room.

Granted, for me, that annoyance is simply based on where I live, the fact that my school is an hour and a half away from home, and that I have an 8:30 class and won't be home until after the polling place closes. (Well, Thursday is after it closes...I will explain this some other time. Let me just say that I spend at least one night a week in a veterinary clinic on an air mattress in an exam room, where the decor is a picture of hookworms, heartworms, whipworms, and tubeworms, as well as models of hips with and without hip dysplasia, an arthritic knee, and a cat's ear [all plastic].)

Anyway, another observation I had was on the number of races that I'd never even heard of, let alone known that I was supposed to be voting on them. Many of them also only had one candidate. For me, this was very surprising. Granted, I had known that there would be a couple of referendums on my ballot - for example, the Illinois amendment to the Constitution that voters can choose to remove a currently installed governor and hold a special election to replace him. Personally, I feel that more could have been done - at current, it has to be approved by members of either the House or Senate (I'm blanking on which) - but I do think it's better than nothing. Blagojevich was horrible.

That would be my discourse on voting for the first time. And it was a cold walk. And dark. The stars were still out in force.

Since I'm in a patriotic mood, I'll end with a quote from Alexis de Tocqueville.

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."   -1835

-enna, granddaughter of two U.S. Veterans - one Air Force, one Army