10/23/2008 - Thursday

Voting –

For those of you who have read the blog from its Africa experiences, know that there was a time when I didn’t think my vote [in the primaries] would count. As I listened to US news, I finally sent the application form my absentee ballot on March 11^th. On April15th it arrived and within an hour the ballot and $45 of postage was on its way back to Philadelphia, hopefully to arrive before the 18^th. IT DIDN’T MAKE IT. When Dawn voted on the 22^nd there was no record of my vote arriving on time. [By the way a second ballot arrived on the 18^th of April.]

If you’ve heard of irregularities in the voting process in the US, they are real. Hopefully they are not numerous, but I’ve now become one of those irregularities.

As many of you know my mother has been moved from Ohio to Pennsylvania. Upon her entrance the interview with the Philadelphia Council on Aging asked whether I had registered to vote in PA. I said not yet. When asked if she wanted to vote, my mother [a long time Democrat] asked why that was important. Dementia does play tricks with what used to be a sharp mind. But before the deadline we did get mom registered to vote and then about two weeks ago we requested absentee ballots. One for her to keep from having to move great distances and one for me as I would be driving back from the American Academy of Religion in Chicago. I didn’t want to risk not voting again.

Well this morning I called to ask how soon the ballots might arrive. I was told that my mother’s ballot had been placed in the mail on the 22^nd, but there was a problem with mine? It seems that my request for a ballot in Africa was still sitting on their system. The application for a ballot to be sent to my home was not readily available, though both of our applications were sent in simultaneously. For those at the LTI in KwaZulu Natal, you might see a piece of mail from the Philadelphia Board of Elections. Do not send it back. The vote will be cast and this time my vote will be counted.

Colin Powell was to be the inspiration for this reflection on the voting process after Sunday’s announcement, but things change. I’m going to be in downtown Philadelphia on Monday morning to cast my ballot before I go to Chicago. Irregularities be damned.