Voting in the Primaries
Ok. So for those of you who saw me disappear from class early yesterday, and witnessed Betsy's hails of good wishes, you would know that I went to go vote yesterday. Let's recount the events that occured and the failures of our voting system, shall we?
So after trekking to my car, I had to speed uptown to my neighborhood. Because you are not allowed to vote just anywhere, but at the specific location designated to your neighborhood depending upon district. I suppose this is to prevent overloading the polls with voters (ha!), but it's actualyl quite inconvenient to be tied down to one location.
Upon arrival, I learn that I am not, accoridng to the state of Maryland, affiliated with a party. I tell the lady, well actually I DO have a party affiliation (not that it's really public knowledge, but just to solve any lingering curiosity, I'm Republican- try not to shriek, I'm a pretty liberal Republican, which is a contradiction really, and there are so very of us in the city of Baltimore). It's a rather involved process to become affiliated with a party- takes about half an hour, which I thought I would sacrifice. However, then I learn that should I become affiliated with a party, I would not be able to vote for any Democratic candidates. What's the problem here? Well. I am a staunch supporter of Mayor O'Malley and I was intent upon voting for him.
Apparently, there is no place for people like me in the primaries. They exist to weed out the competing candidates in the separate parties. I wish I had known that ahead of time, before I booked it out of UB only to turn right around and book it back downtown for my 5:30 PM class. And they wonder why people are discouraged from voting in our modern society? It's annoying that I am unable to support the candidates I'd like to, and they might possibly be cut out from the election. Oh well. Lesson learned. I'll do the only thing I can do, which is to wish my mayor good luck!
So after trekking to my car, I had to speed uptown to my neighborhood. Because you are not allowed to vote just anywhere, but at the specific location designated to your neighborhood depending upon district. I suppose this is to prevent overloading the polls with voters (ha!), but it's actualyl quite inconvenient to be tied down to one location.
Upon arrival, I learn that I am not, accoridng to the state of Maryland, affiliated with a party. I tell the lady, well actually I DO have a party affiliation (not that it's really public knowledge, but just to solve any lingering curiosity, I'm Republican- try not to shriek, I'm a pretty liberal Republican, which is a contradiction really, and there are so very of us in the city of Baltimore). It's a rather involved process to become affiliated with a party- takes about half an hour, which I thought I would sacrifice. However, then I learn that should I become affiliated with a party, I would not be able to vote for any Democratic candidates. What's the problem here? Well. I am a staunch supporter of Mayor O'Malley and I was intent upon voting for him.
Apparently, there is no place for people like me in the primaries. They exist to weed out the competing candidates in the separate parties. I wish I had known that ahead of time, before I booked it out of UB only to turn right around and book it back downtown for my 5:30 PM class. And they wonder why people are discouraged from voting in our modern society? It's annoying that I am unable to support the candidates I'd like to, and they might possibly be cut out from the election. Oh well. Lesson learned. I'll do the only thing I can do, which is to wish my mayor good luck!
posted by Anonymous at 2:17 PM
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