What began as an adjustment for our voting place turned into an adventure on March 10. Our plan began with the idea of hitting the polling place before eating breakfast or making a run for groceries. We had moved since our last vote, so Al checked out where we needed to go and what we needed to do. The lady on the phone made the address correction for the future, but told him we would have to vote by affidavit in this election since we would not be on the books yet. She gave him directions to our new precinct, and we thought we were set.
The first polling place turned out to be on Jackson Road as it should have been, but on the wrong south side of Highway 98. The courteous poll workers told us how to backtrack to the other place, also on Jackson Road on the north side of 98. We had never voted by affidavit before so we waited for instructions, only to learn that one of the two paper ballot poll workers was also learning how to do an affidavit. A lot of double-checking happened on our part and theirs to make sure all the blanks were filled in before Al and I voted in different party primaries. (The t-shirt has nothing to do with the way I voted, but I do think Curious George would have approved.)
Interestingly, in a state where the outcome seemed to be a foregone conclusion for both Democratic and Republican parties, vehicles lined parking spaces in both polling places early. It appeared to me that interest in the election was strong, which I take as a good sign. One might even question the usefulness of Al and me riding together to cancel each other’s votes as we often do, but the part we agree on is that every citizen owes it to themselves and to their country to care enough to vote. No matter what political views we hold, the opportunity of casting a ballot to select our leaders doesn’t happen in every land and both of us treasure that privilege.
P.S. (Can you even do a P. S. on a blog?)
I wrote the previous part of this blog after voting last week but before the news that the coronavirus had postponed primaries in many states. I’m thinking this would be an excellent time to make absentee voting an available and easy option.