The Grand Scheme
I have two mailing addresses. One residence, we rent out. Our family outgrew it, and so we moved to a nearby neighborhood. For whatever reason, I’ve kept our original home address as my permanent address, so important things like ballots go there.
In the run up to the election, I thought I should probably re-register with my current address so that our neighbor could mail us our ballots while we were out of state for much of October and November.
That had been our original plan.
But planners change plans.
And so, when my ballot showed up at my permanent address, provided to me by our tenant, I went ahead and voted it, and sent it.
At the same time, the registrar received my new registration and sent me a new ballot, but by this time, we had left the state. I didn’t realize there was a new one coming my way.
I kept checking my ballot tracker thinking my ballot would have been voted.
On Election Day, I called the Registrar and we figured out what happened. My ballot was invalidated because I had reregistered at a new address.
I had no vote.
Not that this was a consequential election or anything.
I disenfranchised myself.
But in the grand scheme, it was nothing compared to the widespread voter suppression we have in this country. Corrupt state legislatures and the policies they concoct can rip the right to vote away from so many communities in this country.
But what we’re learning from this election, is that turnout is key. What I learned is that the system does work, but only if we work for it. We will look back at this time and remember that democracy is rebuilt every election, and it’s up to we the voters to make it happen.
So my ballot didn’t make it, but millions did, and such is the magic of one vote, one voice.
Now if we can just do something about the Electoral College…
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Photo by Tiffany Tertipes on Unsplash
