Absentee nostalgia
It’s very easy to be an absentee voter in the state of Washington — a story in today’s Seattle PI states that absentee ballots will make up approximately 70% of all votes cast here.
I’ve been voting absentee for several years now and in many ways it’s a wonderful thing. Filling out my ballot at home means that I have time to consider each candidate and initiative carefully, with reference materials easy to hand. And although I’ve always been a conscientious voter when it comes to the big elections, now that I receive every ballot in the mail, I vote even in the “small” elections (local school board, local primaries, etc.).
All of that said, I still feel a bit sad about not actually going to a polling station and filling out my ballot in a voting booth. When I first moved to Seattle, I voted in a Senior Center a few blocks from my apartment on 17th and John. I really enjoyed waiting in line with all of the other voters and helping the slightly-flustered volunteers find my name on their voters’ lists.
On a rainy day like today, I have to admit that I’m glad that my ballot has already been sent in. But I also feel a bit sad that my participation in the voting process is so divorced from the concrete realities of a physical location and other flesh-and-blood voters.
Today in particular I had a horrendous schedule and I was thinking that it would have been good planning on my part to vote absentee. The trip to the polls was very hard to squeeze in. I think I really would have missed the sense of occasion, though, and the sense of community. There are not a lot of events that bring us together the way voting does, even with the divisive qualities of the candidates and the advertising this year.
Our new polling place is at a high school and when I was there school had let out about an hour before and there were miscellaneous clumps of kids goofing around in the usual high-school manner. I was struck by how profoundly my vote could potentially effect these kids, even the local races, and how little the kids were aware of it. Made me feel particularly responsible, somehow.
I got a little teary when I read that. :) Three cheers for voting!