For the first time ever…

Our Voters’ Pamphlet came in the mail yesterday and, for the first time ever, I wasn’t very pleased to see it.  First of all, I knew what it contained.  Information about the thirteen candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, five of whom have already dropped out.   Of the eight remaining, I really don’t need to read the pamphlet.  I’ve heard more than enough.

Furthermore, I am still brimming over with the feeling that whether or not I vote in this primary when the ballots arrive, my vote may not matter.  I know this is a direct result of the three million votes that were cast but “not counted” in the last presidential election, and even though this is a different process altogether, I have an overwhelming feeling of unenthusiasm.  As in, what about those super-delegates, anyway?

In fact, it’s the process I’m feeling the most angst about.  Beginning with the   gazillion ways to vote now — at polling places where you may have to prove who you are before you can cast your vote; by mail-in ballot and absentee ballots;  even by dropping a mail-in ballot at your polling place.  And that’s just the voting process.  Never mind the counting and the electoral college and on and on.

I’ve been been voting since I reached my majority in 1957.  I was 21 (that was still in olden times), but it wouldn’t be until 1960 that I would vote in a presidential election.  I still feel good about the fact that I voted for John F. Kennedy.  I don’t remember that there were any debates leading up to the primary… but there could have been.  I’m sure most of my information about Kennedy came from news magazines and newspapers and maybe the radio.  We didn’t have a television in those days and I certainly never saw him in person.

Of course, I will “vote my conscience” as they say, and submit my ballot in plenty of time.  I still hold a glimmer of hope in my heart — for the election, for the electorate, and for our country.  A glimmer…

 

Leave a Reply