For 44 years I've voted faithfully in every single election. The experience of pulling the curtain closed and marking my ballot has never lost its power to humble and thrill me. This year I had to do something for the 2014 mid-term that I NEVER imagined I would have to do as long as I was able to move--I voted by absentee ballot. Thanks to North Carolina's GOP dominated legislature and its governor reducing early voting opportunities for this election I was afraid to take a chance on getting back to town in time to vote the "real" way. I work out of town all week and the fairly liberal (yes, I dared to use the word) early voting schedule of the past always made me confident that I would be able to get to the polls and exercise my right to participate in a rite I consider to be sacred. I've submitted my ballot by mail. Now I sit here worrying whether it will be lost in the mail, whether it will be counted, if something will be revealed or happen that will cause me to think I made the wrong choice. THANKS GOP for ruining one of the most important special events in which I participate.
I'm fighting back by encouraging all of those college students you've tried so hard to disenfranchise to get absentee ballots and use them. With any luck, maybe you'll get a big surprise in November and we'll roll back your regressive, anti-democracy rules.