Not Getting the Vote Out

This year the United States celebrates once of the most important elections in our history or so the pundits tell us. I feel as if all elections are important. Each one gives us a chance to change our way of life if we only take the opportunity. Too often we don’t.

My daughter and I went to vote today. We have spent the last few days discussing, debating, and joking about the issues at stake. In our family, no one is wrong for the vote they cast. They are only wrong if they feel strongly about an issue and do not vote when they get the opportunity.

For people in Massachusetts today, we had four other issues to vote on besides the presidential race. The first issue was a decrease in the state income tax leading to eliminating the tax by 2010. The second issue was the first step in decriminalizing marijuana in the state. The third was an effort to eliminate dog racing while the fourth was a non-binding question. We had some state and local elections to deal with as well.

We were all set to cast our votes then we ran into a snag. My daughter had moved to Florida and back within the last three years. In Massachusetts, we register to vote when we apply for our driver’s license. My daughter, in the course of living and working in Florida changed her state of residency while she was there. Unbeknownst to us, this also unregistered her as a voter in Massachusetts.

My daughter renewed her driver’s license in October. The DMV did not say anything at that time about her voter’s status. In all fairness, she did not ask any questions either. We were quite surprised today that she could only cast a provisional vote because she hadn’t re-registered.

Now here is the catch, you can register to vote on Election Day but you cannot re-register to vote! We never got a decent reason for why this was. My daughter spent the day ranting about the unfairness of it, and I agree that it was unfair.

Here is where we diverge on the situation. I felt she should go to the town hall and see what she could do to be able to vote today. She felt her best option was to call the VOTE number on television and cast her vote that way. In the end, she did neither.

So who was to blame? According to the poll worker, it was my daughter’s fault for not knowing about voting laws. My daughter feels the state was at fault for not telling her that her voter registration needed renewal when she renewed her license. I think probably it is a case of both sides bearing some blame.

As an adult, my daughter should have made sure she was eligible to vote before Election Day. It is one of the many responsibilities of adulthood but I can understand why she didn’t think of it. I mean, who does think about things like voter registration when they are trying to get their children to school everyday, or worrying about their job, or even when they are trying to scrape together enough money to maintain their vehicle. Who thinks about anything these days other than putting food on the table and gas in the tank?

It is possible the whole thing is Mr. Bush’s fault, but I think that is a bit of a stretch. I mean, yes, the man is going to go down in history as the worst president ever, but blaming him because my daughter was unable to vote this year? Uh, maybe not.