I Want to Vote, Today...

It is Election Day. Today an historic election will take place. We, as a country, are going to elect the next President of the United States of America. There is only one problem...I can't vote. It isn't as if I am not registered, it isn't as if I have no way to get to the polls, it isn't as if I have something lawfully preventing me from casting my ballot.

I took Patrick to football practice this morning. My intent was to vote early, so after I dropped him off, I went ot Cassidy's school, that is my polling place. I parked my car, got out, locked the car and Cassidy and I walked to the "gym lobby" where the voting booths are set up. I got in a line, turns out that I was in the wrong line, so I go to the next table, and attempt to sign in to vote. Well, they won't even sign me in...the voting machine on that side of the room is broken.
"Here," they say, shoving an absentee (oh, I'm sorry, EMERGENCY,) ballot at me. "Use this, the machine is broken." "No, I say, I won't use that, I want to vote in the machine like everyone else, I want my vote counted when I cast it, not later after the fact." "Well, we have called, so come back later."

"Come back later???????????" "COME BACK LATER???????????" Now suppose that I don't have later, suppose this was the only time that I have to vote? How unfair is this? What is this? I get myself out to do my civic duty and to exercize my right to vote, and they are shoving a paper ballot in my hand? I am pissed, pardon the expression, PISSED! How can they expect people to vote if it is being made so difficult? I didn't have my glasses, I didn't have the tools needed to fill out that "emergency" ballot. It is nothing more than an absentee ballot, I know, because it is the same ballot I helped my mother fill out the last time she voted. She was blind as you recall and didn't read braille. I feel that my right to vote and cast my ballot in the traditional way has been taken away. I feel that I am being told that I may not vote in the manner to which I have been come accustomed. I have been denied my inalienable right to vote. I am really angry and upset.

I tried to call my county board of elections, but well, the phone was busy, and the time that I did get a ring on the other end of the phone, well that was a no go, it rang and rang and rang, and then hung up on me. I just feel violated. I haen't missed an election since I was18. Not one. I voted even in the election after I was married, and had changed my name, I went through proper proceedure to get my name registered in my new home, and yes, I voted in a voting booth, and continued to do so. There was a machine working in the polling place, but being from a different district, I couldn't use it. I never saw that before. WHenever I voted, I would sign in and go to the next available voting machine and Wha Laaaa! Eureeka! I would magically cast my vote! Poof, the information was recorded immediately, not after the polls close, not let's wait to count those "absentee" ballots. If I wanted to vote absentee, I would have requested the ballot, back when we were asked to do so, I would have mailed it in when it was supposed to be mailed in, and I would not have been pissed off about doing it!.

When I was little, I went to the polling place with my parents, I went into the booth with them, to observe the process. I wasn't clueless about how the levers and buttons worked. I voted for the first time, not as a stranger, but as an old friend to the machine. I was informed politically, and mechanically.

I WANT TO VOTE! I WANT TO VOTE! I WANT TO VOTE!

Now that my tantrum is over, I will sit here and attempt to vote again later, but if it isn't feasible, I will write every newly elected person to display my anger and frustration, and then I will want answers as to why there aren't more booths for us to use............wish me luck, think of me as you go into the voting booth today.