Voting in 2020

Well, October 15th came and went and we were still in Las Vegas. There are several reasons for the delay that we’ll talk about in the next couple of days,  but one key issue was voting. We received our mail-in ballots, did our research and inked in the appropriate blocks to vote for our candidates, judges and state referendum questions. Then we were feeling uncomfortable about mailing them in

Heck, over the years, we’ve cast our absentee ballots for Presidential elections via the mail from Ecuador, Chile and New Zealand and never thought twice about it. Here, we are in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA well within the mailing time and we were worried our ballots wouldn’t make it. It’s perhaps an irrational fear, but it adds just another variable of the unknown to the equation. 

Why not vote in person? Hmm, we’re in the middle of a pandemic and we’re over age 70. We’ve been cautious and careful. Waiting in long lines (and they have been long) in the desert heat midst hundreds of other voters seemed imprudent. We ultimately found a drop box, dropped our ballots in under the careful eye of a poll offficial and felt more comfortable that our votes would be counted. Then I registered both of us in Ballot Trax, one of several ballot locator and notification systems, to insure our votes were received. Within a day, we both received text notifications from the Clark County Registar of Voters that our ballots had been received. We’ll receive another when our votes are counted.

Why the insecurity, the angst, the concern? There’s been so much rhetoric about mail-in ballot voter fraud, election tampering and election interference that we felt it necessary to insure our votes made it to their ultimate destination and were counted. We’re big proponents of news literacy... seeking out credible evidence-based sources to evaluate what is truth and what is not. It’s not easy and it’s sometimes time-intensive and not always conclusive. I’d rather trust my own judgment and research than trust a source-less Facebook post or Tweet. All that said, though the allegations lack substance and evidence, we still had doubt

We’ve heard several folks say “Why bother voting? I doubt my vote matters anyway.” Wow! Of course your vote counts... if you vote. It only doesn’t count if you choose not to vote. We consider voting not only a right to be exercised, but a civic responsibility. Some countries, Australia for instance, require all eligible voters to show up at the polls whether they opt to vote or not. Election Day there is also a Sunday… not a Tuesday work day… less important In the USA now with early voting and mail-in voting options.

Really, we’re not trying to preach from a soapbox. Voting is a fundamental part of our right to participate in the governing of our country. We hope our guy wins, but, more importantly, whether  you’re a Republican, Democrat or Independent, we sincerely hope you get out and vote..