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| Sample ballot from Palm Beach County, FL from the 2000 presidential election |
When I was a young boy, I lived in a small central New York town. Small town elections are goofy affairs, in that voters actually know the candidates and understand how short a shadow their reputation casts. That reality didn't stop my parents from exercising their franchise. Mom and Dad voted in a wooden building within walking distance of our house. What made my parents' voting memorable is that they claimed the election officials openly wore partisan Republican political badges. I have every reason now to believe my folks. At the time, I thought voter fraud was something that took place far away, in corrupt Chicago or the Kingfish's Louisiana.
I don't remember the first time I voted. It just wasn't as memorable as, say, taking my road test for a driver's license. However, I have cast my ballot in nearly every November election. The exception was the time I lived in Italy. The Italians have a novel way of conducting elections: everyone returns to where they were born and votes there. It's no joke. The trains are filled with people going to their birthplace, like so many salmon swimming upstream to spawn. Italian elections are about as honest as those held in rural Texas or The Wire's Baltimore.
The only time I felt genuinely apprehensive about voting was in 2004. George W. Bush, who had gained the presidency without winning a plurality of the national vote, was running for re-election. The feeling in '04 was that the fix was in for W. My wife and I cast absentee ballots, went to Canada for Election Day, and watched the Bush v. Kerry results from across the border. It was a creepy, depressing experience, soon magnified by the revelations about Abu Ghraib, the extent of domestic spying, and the pervasive sense of trickle-down corruption.
I don't know how this year's presidential election will turn out. I just hope my vote doesn't get counted for Pat Buchanan.
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