Get out the vote(r)!

I voted today.

I was tempted to skip it. I'm an intermittent voter. I always vote during the presidential elections but I'm a little spotty at the inbetweens.

Of course, it has been made clear that the fate of the United States rests on this mid-term election. Both parties have made that clear. What got me out today, though, was the local school board race. There are two incumbents I wanted to vote for. I want them around in January when I may be part of a group of parents trying to keep the multi-age class our children attend a district program.

I hate election days. I believe in voting. I believe it is important to cast your individual vote but I hate politics. I hate how otherwise civilized people spew bile at anyone who dares to hold an opposing point of view. I don't trust politicians. I'm afraid to say what I think about both the Democratic AND Republican partes yet I do not see a single good alternative. (Except of course, for the one that came to me in a dream.) I feel most comfortable engaging at the local level: school boards, city councils, propositions. It seems like you can have the biggest impact there.

Still though, I persevered and voted in spite of my ambivalence. I did something else though, too. I signed up to be an election day officer! I stood waiting for my booth--we have cool, mostly easy-to-handle electronic voting with a paper printout that you approve before it is submitted--and looked at the sign up sheet. There was one name on it. It was 1:45 p.m. and only one person had signed up to help facilitate during the next election.

So I signed up. I can do that. I may not feel hopeful about the political system in general but I can be a smiling, helpful competent election day officer. Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe it does.

Until tomorrow,

Mary

P.S. I just found a reference to my blog on another blog. This whole NaBloPoMo randomizer thing is hysterical. I was using it to look at participating blogs and found a blog that had a post about the NaBloPoMo randomizer. Gus over at Strange Neighborhood shared one sentence blurbs about some of the blogs he found and mine was one of them. What a riot! He apparently read my homemade raisin post and perceived my love of all things Douglas Adams. I wonder what tipped him off?

7 down, 23 to go