Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Wednesday Whine


I registered to vote about 8 or 9 years ago once when I renewed my driver's license. I specifically remembered registering as No Affiliation, knowing that in the Primaries only Republicans can vote for Republicans and Democrats for Democrats. My thinking was that if I was not affiliated with either party then I could vote for both parties in the Primary, because although I veer a little towards one party I consider myself somewhat in the middle so I'd like to be able to vote for whatever candidate I felt was best on both sides. I do know that in the general election that you can vote for whomever you choose no matter what party with whom you are affiliated. Looking back I guess that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
I actually have not voted at all since I registered. I have never felt that I was informed enough to make a responsible decision. Granted, it's my own fault that I hadn't educated myself enough on the candidates but I did feel that it was better to not vote at all than to vote for just whomever I felt like for no particular reason. Please do not email me telling me how pathetic I am for never voting because I already know. I know that if I had been born 100 years ago that I would not even be allowed to vote. Believe me, I feel plenty guilty thinking of all those women who fought long and hard to give America's future women, like me, the right to vote, and I have never acted on that right.
I don't know that it would have mattered all that much anyway. The guy that I would have voted for in the 2000 Presidential race won Pennsylvania's delegates anyway so my vote wouldn't have done anything for him, and, in 2004, I couldn't decide who was the lesser of two evils and besides B was only 4 days old and we had just come home from the hospital. I wasn't going anywhere! Yes, I know, they're just excuses. Well, that changes now, because I will vote in this election and in the Primary.
Which brings me to Wednesday's Whine -- As I said, I thought that I would be able to vote in the Primary for whomever I chose being Not Affiliated. I'm not sure where I got this idea. I now know that it was something I made up in my own head. R had been telling me for months that he thought I wouldn't be able to vote in the Primary and it turns out he was right. I went online to see when Pennsylvania's Primary would be and found out that according to Pennsylvania Electoral Law, people registered as Not Affiliated cannot vote in the Primary. Ok, irritating but no big deal. It was my own fault for making things up and I found that I could easily change my party affiliation on the PA government website. Let me tell you that that site is not easy to navigate and not only that, according to the site I AM NOT REGISTERED TO VOTE ANYWAY. What??? Yes, I made up that rule about Not Affliateds being able to vote in the Primary, but I did not make this up. I KNOW I was registered. I even got one of those cards in the mail. Who knows what happened there. Good thing I found out now and saved myself the embarassment of actually trying to vote when there is apparently no record of my registration. So after an hour of fooling around on this website, I ended up registering to vote. All I have to do is get it to the Voter Registration Office by March 24 so I can vote in the Primary.
What a pain. I hope your Wednesday is whine-free!

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