Hola! Thoughts on Voting, Etc.

No Friday Night Miscellany tonight - I'm just too wound up by the non-ending "news" about the election. Pray Goddess it all ENDS on Tuesday, I'm so sick of it all. The commercials are the worst - some are outright lies, others are blatant distortions, still others are almost relevant by pointing out differences in potential policy approaches (those are few and far between). I've had enough of both Presidential candidates in the U.S. running large frigging pep rallies all around the country. It's like - snore - so what? I'm tired of hearing John McCain's "My Friends," sick of Sarah Palin's phoney corn-pone accent, bored with Biden's too-wide smile (does he wear a toup???), and impatient with Obama's equanimity. I want to see a little PASSION, Mister! And what if I'm one of the millions of people in this country who does NOT own a computer or have internet access? How do I find out about the candidates' stands on issues then, heh? Someone who wants to know will NOT generally find in-depth analysis of the candidates' respective stands in their local newspapers (unless one happens to subscribe to The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, or The Washington Post), and certainly not from political hack ads on television and radio being paid for by the campaigns, the respective national party organizations for the Democrats and Republicans, and various private organizations. On the plus side, I have been extremely pleased to see as much as one-third of the potential electorate casting early ballots during this election. I did the same. I voted early in 2004 but I had to do so in person at City Hall - not a pleasant experience, as there were several hundred other people already standing in a snaking line in City Hall's small atrium when I got there at 4:00 p.m. after taking off work an hour early on purpose just to vote. It took hours! I didn't get home until 7:30 p.m. that night - I live less than a mile away from City Hall. I suppose I waited too long and I confess I had not educated myself enough on the process, so I don't know if it would have been possible THEN to send in an application for an "absentee ballot" (they don't call it "early voting" here) and vote by mail, which is exactly what I did this year - convenient, painless, easy. I downloaded the "application" from the internet from the City Clerk's website, filled it out and mailed it in. I could have faxed it but - call me old-fashioned - I felt uncomfortable with the idea of doing so. Yeah, I know, doesn't make sense - can't explain it, it was just one of those things, darlings! In Wisconsin, one does not have to provide a "reason" for casting an early ballot, so one does not have to come up with a "dog ate my homework" type of excuse. I got my ballot a week ago last Thursday in the mail and mailed back to City Hall on Monday of this week. It's done, and I feel glad, happy - and relieved - to have done my citizen's duty. Only silly thing - you need a WITNESS! Yeah - I mean - how silly is that - as if one couldn't cheat about the witness? There was an enclosure with the official ballot along with a postage-paid return envelope (taxpayer dollars at work, finally an expenditure I benefit from!!!) explaining that I had to exhibit my BLANK ballot in front of my witness, then vote in secret (I made my witness cover her eyes and swear she wasn't peeking), I filled out the ballot in #2 pencil, folded it up, placed it in the envelope and sealed it. Then I signed and then my witness signed and provided her address as requested. I wonder - do they check those addresses of every "absentee ballot" witness to see if they're valid or not? How would they do it if, say, a person is a renter and not a property owner (so no property tax bill data base), not a driver, as I am not (therefore no drivers' license data base to check from), and not a person who has voted in the past several elections - or ever voted, for that matter (therefore does not show up in any state-wide canvass of local voter registration lists). Hmmmm...would that mean my absentee ballot would be thrown out? Oh oh, now I'm getting paranoid. Hmmm... At any rate, I am glad for the early voting opportunity and the ease of execution to vote early in Wisconsin. Thank you, Wisconsin! In other states the process has been much more problematic, and I'm worried about that. If people come to vote early and are confronted with long lines that will take hours to work through, will they be daunted and just go back home without voting? And if they do go home without voting from early voting, will they show up at the polls next Tuesday? I live in a suburb of Milwaukee; Milwaukee has opened a large early voting center downtown, where a lot of people work and, I have to say, readily accessible by bus from any part of the city. I understand, on average, 1500 people a day have been voting since this center became available - but I don't know how long it has been available. But you know, any amount of congestion that early voting relieves from the polls next Tuesday is a triumph; as I understand it, "experts" are predicting the largest nationwide voter turnover - over 63%! - in more than 40 years. I suppose I'm being naive, though, in praying that there will be no legal challenges filed by partisans of Republicans and Democrats caused by legitimate and illegitmate reasons for discarding votes, or sending people home without voting, or mysteriously disappearing ballots or - oh Goddess, this is all giving me a headache. You'd think we were living in a third world country where stealing elections is commonplace! Geez! I'm going to go relax in one of my comfy wing chairs now, with a glass of wine, and open up "The Fire" where I left off a few days ago. I'm doing my first pass through Neville's novel slowly, savoring every moment...