Mid-term elections in absentia
In case anyone else has as much trouble keeping up with my residency as I do, I thought I should make it clear for this post. I am a Virginia resident (since April 2005 when I bought a car), even though my parents now live in Ohio, all of my belongings are in Washington, DC, and I have no intention of living in Virginia again. I think you other transient twenty-somethings can relate to the chaos of moving every year or so and filling out tax returns for three different states.
Once again I’m voting by absentee ballot. This is my fourth election by absentee- I haven’t yet been in right place at the right time to vote in a real booth! This is an important election because, as a Virginia resident, I get to vote for two promising Democrats (Jim Webb and Judy Feder) to put two Bush-allied Republicans out of office- Senator George Allen and Representative Frank Wolf. I also get to vote against the ridiculous ‘Marriage Amendment’ to the Virginia Constitution. It would preclude gay marriage and civil unions, two things that I definitely think should be allowed. I sent off my ballot on Monday so it should get there by November 7.
Matt, by the way, is not voting by absentee ballot because is a resident of Washington, DC and DOES NOT HAVE REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS, thus does not have a mid-term election to vote in. Now, I know most of you don’t contact your political representatives on a regular basis, but imagine if you passionately wanted to urge someone to vote against something, like the disgusting torture bill, but had no one to contact. That’s the predicament of 582,000 District residents (that’s more people that the entire population of Wyoming). Now how many of you knew that? I didn’t until I met Matt. I don’t recall learning in U.S. history that the “Taxation without Representation” tagline on DC license plates actually speaks to a current injustice. Did you learn that in school? Go to www.dcvote.org to learn more.
So I’m exercising my right to vote from New Zealand. If we don’t participate in the political process we can hardly be part of the solution. Here’s hoping for a shutdown of the Republican machine this November.
Carrie
7 comments:
One of the privileges of being displaced to Illinois is that I DO get to vote. It is a rare treat for a Washingtonian. Still, I know the hassle of voting by absentee. Kudos for the effort.
I try to vote, but have trouble believing that it makes a difference in any election that doesn't come down to one vote. Or even five votes.
Why doesn't DC have representation? I know it's because the Constitution says that or something, but surely there used to be a rationale for it?
Finally, I wonder if Democrats didn't gain quite a bit from losing in 2006 and thus having to take responsibility for what was turning out to be a HUGE mess. And that makes me wonder if it's a good long-term strategy for Democrats to make a partial comeback in this election. My prediction is that they'll just end up taking more of the blame without actually changing anything.
But, I totally support your going to so much trouble to vote. I rely on a lot of people like you in order for me to stay home.
What would be nice is if they randomly generated the outcome based on the vote ratios.
E.g. the put all the votes into a huge hat and pull one out and whatever that dude voted for goes.
Wouldn't that be neat?
Or, alternatively, they could just pick people at random for one house and have the other house elected some other way.
Ahhhh...to have a vote...it is not that it means much in this time period...but just to vote someone -- someone I could lobby would be nice....ahhh to vote...I wish I could at least say that MY senators did NOT vote for the torture bill!
ahhh just to have a vote....
Just for the fun of it, as a former and homesick Washingtonian: "Both of my senators voted AGAINST the horrible torture bill." (My rep didn't do as well.) (Temporarily resident in Illinois.)
It's true that one vote rarely determines an election, but if too many people use that line, we're left with the people who really want to vote (frequently wackos) being the only ones voting.
That's true. My not voting doesn't influence anything, but if a whole bunch of people like me read this and decide not to vote, then I've kinda screwed myself.
Or, if we really only influence our own votes as I presumed, then you'd expect voting to decrease to the point where only a few folks vote on the off-chance that their elections really will come down to one vote. Unfortunately, all the duty-bound voters like Carrie are screwing up this totally bizarre possibility by artificially inflating turnout.
I'm hoping that laziness and a self-image as a Rational Agent is more highly correlated with conservatism, and so my promulgation of this theory will score big time. Do your part by spreading it around, especially in the presence of people you'd wish wouldn't vote. (I just trust that all the readers here are conscientious enough to vote anyway, and for the right people.)
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