Today, May 3rd, is voting day here in Ohio. Do you exercise your right to vote? I hope you do because too many soldiers fought and died for your right to do so. Too many men laid face down on the shores of Normandy, froze to death on the plains of Europe, and burned on the decks of ships in the Pacific for us to shirk our responsibility to vote!
However, in our busy, hectic lives, it can be a hassle to take time out of a work day to go to a voting center. Because I travel so much and can never be sure that I’ll be in town on a voting day, Laura and I always get absentee ballots. Plus, going to a polling place can be annoying. Who wants to be hounded by pollsters while waiting in line, harassed by protesters, held up in line for an hour, and hassled by driving rain while standing in a long line? Not to mention having to take off of work and having to find the location of your polling place.
The best reason, though, to get an absentee ballot is so that you can see each person and each issue on the ballot. When I go into a polling station to vote, I see two names on the ballot: John A. Smith and James A. Smith. Well, who is who? What do they stand for? Most people running for a judge position often won’t even have a party affiliation next to their name so you don’t even know what their general belief system is. Don’t get to a polling place and not know who to vote for! With an absentee ballot, you can Google each name and each ballot issue to know exactly how you wish to vote.
Find your county board of elections by putting “xxx county board of elections” into Google with the xxx as your local county. There, you can request absentee ballots. It’s easy, saves time, allows you to skip the hassle of a polling location, and most importantly, allows you to be up to speed on all the issues and people running for office. You don’t have to be out of the state or country to get an absentee ballot: if you are elderly and immobile, busy at work, or just want to be able to Google everything to be the most informed as possible, the reason doesn’t matter. You can always request one. It’s easy — sign up for absentee ballot today!
Good counsel there, Bud. We have early voting here in Texas, and your mother and I usually pick a morning during that time frame to slip down to the annex and vote. I like your idea of Googling issues and names to be better informed.