I feel myself swinging

[Gwendolyn]

Its really sad that people are shocked to hear that I have voted in every presidental election since 1988.

For sure a bunch of hippies but, my parents had a cake for me the first time I voted...Clinton's primary...I checked a box yes of yes or no (Arizona you can only vote in the primary you are registered for). I still feel that it is that important...

If only everyone voted. I would feel way less bitter about W. Just sad about my country. But as it is, he doesn't represent the will of the people, just a guy who won when some people voted.

Its really sad that people are shocked to hear that I have voted in every presidental election since 1988.

I don't know why it's shocking. I've voted in every presidental since 1992. I don't understand people who don't vote. I just don't get it. It's a right. It's a priviledge. It also seems that everyone I know DOES vote (even those I consider woefully uninformed), so I wonder where the minions are that don't.

[Sheherezade]

I think we need to promote voting by the uninformed.

Seriously, at least it would get those people out that have no idea what's going on. They don't hit the polls because they feel they don't know enough to participate. Phooey! Just vote, already.

[Meenah]

I don't think I have missed an election either. I have done a couple of absentee votes too!

[MissCrabette]

I'm in the middle too. I guess that makes me a liberal conservative. Or is that a conservative liberal?

I can't vote yet so it annoys me when people who have the right to vote don't bother with it. What gets me even angrier is when people vote one way and have no clue why they did it. One of my friends voted for W the first time around and could not come up with a reason for her choice. She had no idea what the election issues were and she just shrugged and said she thought W sounded better. :! Like Bono said in a recent interview, I admire people with strong convictions... and she seemed to lack them entirely.

What do you have to do to be able to vote? Do you have to live here so long or something?

[MissCrabette]

You have to be a citizen to vote and I'm still only a permanent resident.

Is that process a pain? I have never known anyone that has had to go through it. I knew a girl that gave up her citizenship here to become a resident of Japan and she had a heck of a time. She moved there on a whim and only knew a friends parents when she did move there so she went through it all on her own. Pretty brave.

[MissCrabette]

The process is pretty straightforward but immigrations are backed up beyond belief. They transfered our file at least three times and renewed my proof of permanent residency on several occasions, with no change in the status of our case. I think at some point they may have misplaced our file and it took an angry call from my mom for them to expedite the case. Wouldn't you know it, the case was pushed forward within a week of that call.

Here's a somewhat amusing story. We went to one of the field offices a couple of weeks ago to get the permanent green cards done. We had some temporary proof of residence cards and they had to collect those. They were going to stamp our passports yet one more time saying that we are lawful residents. Unfortunately our passports had expired earlier this year. So what do you think their brilliant idea was? Collect the old proofs of residence and give us new ones. :thud: :!

I remember an elderly neighbor asking if I had voted when I saw her one election day. I hadn't but was going when DH got home from work. She said she couldn't understand why young people didn't vote. They didn't even have to pay the poll taxes anymore. :thud:

The process is pretty straightforward but immigrations are backed up beyond belief. They transfered our file at least three times and renewed my proof of permanent residency on several occasions, with no change in the status of our case. I think at some point they may have misplaced our file and it took an angry call from my mom for them to expedite the case. Wouldn't you know it, the case was pushed forward within a week of that call.

Here's a somewhat amusing story. We went to one of the field offices a couple of weeks ago to get the permanent green cards done. We had some temporary proof of residence cards and they had to collect those. They were going to stamp our passports yet one more time saying that we are lawful residents. Unfortunately our passports had expired earlier this year. So what do you think their brilliant idea was? Collect the old proofs of residence and give us new ones. :thud: :!

oh sheeeeesh....

I registered to vote in high school. Senior year, everybody had to take Government class and our teacher had a lesson on the voting process/history. At the end of the week, he handed out voter registration forms for us to fill out. I've voted in every election since then (1993?4?).

One of the organizations I volunteer for provides voter registration forms at every event. We get a few new ones and several change-of-address forms each quarter. It's encouraging, but we know we're preaching to the choir and don't expect to get many forms because the people in attendence are there because they're very politically active.

I don't know that just voting is enough. I wish people took more time to research the decision and based it on merrit rather than appearance or single issues. But that's me, an idealist.