Vote November 6

I voted today. 

Right now, some of you are probably saying, “Dang! Was that today?”

No worries, you haven’t missed it, Election Day is still more than a week away. I took advantage of the ballot coming ahead of the Big Day and filed it out already.

Voting is a lot easier with mail-in ballots, you don’t have to get out of your jammies to do it, or get a sitter for the kids, or catch a ride, or any of those other, pesky details that are often a part of leaving the house. All you need is an ink pen and your voter’s pamphlet—you don’t even need a stamp anymore!

As convenient as all that is, I still kind of miss heading out to my local polling place—for me it was the Senior Center in Packwood. The line was never too long, and it was fun to chat with my neighbors, and buy some bake sale goodies. Usually, I had to undergo some gentle chiding by the sweet—some not as sweet—little old ladies who were tasked with implementing the voting process. Seems I was always the last in my family to vote and they always pointed it out to me that everyone else had already managed to vote by the time I showed up. “Best for last!” I would proclaim and sign the book.

I can’t say I liked punching the metal stylus into the appropriate slot next to my candidate’s name—on more than one occasion I had to request a replacement ballot. Once because I didn’t properly insert my ballot and so all my votes were “off” and once because—well, I’m very pretty, have I mentioned that?

But the very best thing about going out to vote was getting the little “I Voted” sticker afterwards, sort of a good citizenship gold star. Walking around the grocery or hardware store afterwards, I felt this real sense of shared community, all of us sporting our democracy participation awards.

I think I’ll write a letter to the fine people in charge of elections and suggest they include a “I Voted” sticker with our mail in ballots next time. Some things are just too good to be improved on, and “I Voted” stickers are one of them.