Steve Hudson

Pre-Election BLOG SPECIAL -- Here’s How to Vote – What YOU Should Do When You Vote Next Week!

And you are going to vote, aren’t you? You’d better. Others are. You’d better do it too.

We were talking about this at breakfast today, and my wife observed that she’d been talking to folks who had already stood in line four or five hours to vote. And that was in the early voting.

“That’s a good thing,” she said. “I’m glad to see it. Maybe it says that we’re not in such bad shape after all if people care enough to stand in line that long.”

Me, I took the easy way and used one of the mail-in ballots. When I ordered the ballot I worried that I’d kind of miss the election-day camaraderie that comes when you stand in line for a while with folks you don’t know, though I’d have made their acquaintance by the end. I’d often see folks I did know, too, and we’d chat and visit. We never talked about who we were going to vote for, or politics, or any of that, but we talked about everything else – kids, dogs, grocery shopping, the whole nine yards. It was kind of like a good old fashioned community get-together.

Surprise of surprises, I found the same sort of crowd at the post office when I went to mail the mail-in ballot. Sure enough, there they were -- a half-dozen folks I knew, all carrying those distinctive little mail-in ballot envelopes. So we visited and chatted and swapped a little gossip, because that’s what you do when you vote.

But we didn’t talk about politics. In proper society, when actual voting time comes, that just isn’t done.

However…

Vital Election Issues: Who Stole the Cookies From the Cookie Jar?

I don't know if that applies to candidates, however. I don't know if they really like to talk about issues or not...but they sure as heck do love to talk about one another. Big surprise there. I guess that’s the nature of the game. But a lot of times this time around it’s been along the lines of “He took my cookies!” vs. “No, HE took MY cookies!”

It’s really gotten comical. Last night I got in kind of late and really wanted to do nothing more than sit down and watch some reruns of Hogan’s Heroes or some such favorite show. It didn’t really matter what was on the TV; what mattered was being able to put my feet up in front of the fire and stretch that good kind of stretch that comes at the end of a long day.

So I turned on the TV and there was Candidate A in a political spot telling me what a slug and a slimeball his opponent was. Then, immediately following, there was another political spot in which Candidate B came on and said pretty much the same thing about his opponent. And THEN there was Candidate A again, repeating it all one more time.

Then there was a commercial for sofas or something.

And THEN there was Candidate B again, followed by (you guessed it) good old Candidate A.

“He took my cookies!”  “No, he took mine!”

And all of this was in ONE commercial break.

Somebody had to pay for all that TV time. Sooooo much money that might have been used for soooo many other things. But I guess they’ve gotta buy ads. Ad buying is an important part of the job of leadership, I suppose.

Ahh, politics.

How You Should Vote

So, gentle reader, to offer one last bit of advice and perhaps to single-handedly save the nation from doom, I am going to give you this last-minute advice on how I, your humble editor, think you should vote.

Of course, I think you should vote exactly like I did. That way my guy will win. Simple enough.

Here’s how to do it:

Vote by secret ballot, just like me.

I used a Number 2 pencil. I selected one with a good point, but not too sharp, as I did not want to tear and possibly invalidate by ballot.

I made sure that the filling in of each little oval was neat, solid, and did not go beyond the lines.

I double-checked to be sure I had filled in the requisite number of ovals.

Then I folded it as instructed, put it in the inner envelope, put that in the outer envelope, did the paperwork, affixed the stamp, and went down to the post office, where I got the double pleasure of visiting with my fellow voting citizens, all easily identified by the afore-mentioned ballot envelopes they were carrying.

It didn’t hurt a bit.

And heck, you never know – it might even make a difference.

Posted by Steve Hudson on October 31, 2008 | Comments (0)