It's been a while since I've blogged. When the pandemic started, I figured I would document it for history, because I didn't think it would last this long or get this bad, and I thought it would be an interesting record of a weird month. That was nearly half a year ago, and it's so thoroughly rehashed ad nauseam in the news that I haven't felt like it.
Life marches on. And at least for now, we still live in a republic, so voting marches on, too.
There's been a bit of controversy about how voting should happen in a pandemic. I'm not going to go into that here, but I will describe my experience voting.
The state I live in has a semi-open primary. The presidential primary is closed and was held a few months ago. Independents can't vote in the presidential primary. In the regular primary, independents can select the ballot of either major party but not any of the minor parties. The regular primary election is scheduled for about a week and a half from now.
Usually my county allows for early in-person voting a few days in advance of the election as well as in-person voting on election day. Absentee voting is also available. Because of the pandemic, early in-person voting has been extended for this election. It began a few weeks ago.
I prefer to vote in person because I find it emotionally and spiritually satisfying in a way that mail-in voting isn't to me. I got my sample ballot in the mail yesterday, so I stayed up late last night researching the candidates and went to vote this morning after my telephone court hearing.
I have a medical condition that prevents me from wearing a cloth mask, so I wear a plastic face shield instead. People on social media are thoroughly horrible to me about this, though for the most part people in person are totally fine with it. I carry a highlighted copy of the county face covering order with me in my purse in case I ever need to use it to defend myself, but I haven't needed it yet. One nice thing about living in the Wild West is that we have a live and let live attitude about most things. I was, however, a little worried that some officious poll worker might try to wield a little unwarranted authority, so I rehearsed what I would say if challenged.
I showed up at my polling place at the local elementary school at about 9:00 AM. I was the only voter there, and there were about half a dozen poll workers. They were excited to see me; I don't think they get many customers in a day. The polling place was set up in the gymnasium, and everyone was very well spaced out. There were about 15 voting booths, each several feet apart.
I checked in, showed my ID, selected the party's ballot I was going to cast, and then walked to a voting booth. I had my choice of any one in the gym. I picked one right in the middle. After filling out the ballot, I turned it in, dropped my pen in the "to be sanitized" bucket, thanked the poll workers, and was given a sticker. Nobody said a word about my face shield.
All in all, it was fairly similar to non-pandemic voting, with the exception of a pen sanitizing bucket and things being a little further apart. I hope both of those things stick around. Communal pens can get pretty germy, and we probably should have been sanitizing them all along. And I like the added privacy of the voting booths being further apart. I also liked not having to wait in line, but honestly voter turnout in primary elections is usually so low that I rarely have to wait in line anyway.
I felt perfectly safe; they were taking sensible precautions. I didn't put my sticker on because it felt silly to wear an "I Voted!" sticker when it's not election day. Maybe I'll wear it on election day, and maybe I won't. I'm kind of torn on whether those stickers are a public service announcement to remind others to vote or whether they're virtue signaling.
I look forward to voting again in November, and as long as it's available, I plan to do it in person.
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