So it's been months and months and we've read a gazillion trillion diaries about how it's all in the bag or that we're all doomed! Doomed, I tell you!
Screw all that. Game on. It's voting time here in the beeyootiful Buckeye State and I've got my absentee ballot in my hot little hand. Come vote with me!
This is going to be one of those photo diaries, so take a look at what we've got going on here in Franklin County, Ohio. What does the ballot look like? In Columbus, there are two separate pages of candidates and issues, some printed on the front and some on the back of each page (flip over all the pages when you get yours to make sure you vote for every race!)
It's an absentee ballot, so it should show your precinct number on the corner so you know you've got the right ballot for your address. We're voting in 54-A, on the northeast side of town, which would typically mean you vote at one of the city firehouses, but not today:
Let's cut to the important part- let's fill in the big race!
Next we vote to return Sherrod Brown to the Senate and send a new congresswoman to represent a brand new Columbus democratic district- Joyce Beatty.
Don't forget to look up the non-partisan judge candidates so you can mark all the dems.
And it's still Ohio, so there has to be one batshit crazy issue on there- do we want to convene a Constitutional convention to rewrite the whole thing, since it's pesky enough to stop our governor from firing all the state employees and giving the precious budget funds out as party favors? Uhhhhh, no. I don't think so.
Now, we get to vote for a rare issue that actually has meaning (enough that it's been dragged into every commission and court hearing you can think of). The issue is really long and covers almost a whole page. Should we have a multi-member commission draw up political districts using a transparent public process, instead of having the statehouse political machine do it while locked up in a secret hotel room downtown while hiding the electoral maps from the other party? Sure we should!
Now we will just stick that ballot in the interior envelope after completing our personal info (birthday and SS# or DL#), then tuck the whole thing into the mailing envelope. Do it fast, so the campaigns can bank our vote and spend their time going after the slackers who need to be dragged to the polls.
But wait!!! You can't just stick a stamp on that thing and put it in the mail- it costs 65 cents to mail that absentee ballot in this county. (Yet another way to possibly lose your vote in this state, dammit!) That's okay- I gotcher change right here.
That's one vote in the bag for the dems. Just so you know- former dem Governor Ted Strickland is doing robo-calls to all the dem voters who requested absentee ballots that we know about, asking that we all commit to send those suckers back within one week of receiving them. Mine arrived on Wednesday morning, and it's going in the mail by Wednesday afternoon.
On election day, once again I will be standing at the polls from 5:30 a.m. until whenever, helping people vote for their candidates without getting hassled. If you haven't got plans for spending your own election day working, think about being a poll worker. It pays and you get to protect a couple hundred voters face to face. For all us democracy junkies, nothing beats that feeling as you throw open the door and greet those first eager voters at the crack of dawn.
Now get out there and get voting!