Doing My Civic Duty

Today was our state's primary election day. In addition to paring down the field of candidates before the general election in November, there was one statewide proposition and several county charter amendments to vote on.

Two weeks ago Hubby Tony and I both received a tri-fold sheet sent out by the Board of Election Commissioners that included our polling information and sample ballots for the Democrat, Republic, Green, Libertarian, and Constitution parties. That made it easy to research all the candidates. I don't have a party affiliation, but in order to vote for any candidate I have to choose one for the primary. After researching all the options I went into the polling place knowing what the answer would be when they asked what ballot I wanted.

All morning long I saw the photos of my Facebook friends showing off their “I Voted” sticker selfies. I'm not sure when it became obligatory to get a sticker for casting a ballot, but I'm not a fan. Half of the time I forget to take the sticker off before tossing my shirt in the laundry and it ends up turning into a adhesive-removing project.

I went to the poll after lunch, and there was no line.  When it was time to cast my ballot an election authority walked with me to a booth, activated the touch screen, and verified that the correct form had loaded. Because I had done legwork ahead of time it didn't take me long to express my opinion for each of the people and items.

As I walked away from the voting booth a poll worker was standing there holding out a sticker for me. At first I declined, but when she looked disappointed I changed my mind and took it.  Hopefully the colorful red, white, and blue decal will catch my eye when I take off my shirt to change into my pajamas at the end of the night.

Five years ago today: Day Tripping