You never think it can happen to you...
What I'm referring to? Voter disenfranchisement!
My females have already gotten earfuls of my prattle on this topic (<3s to you both for bearing with me and my eternal frustration!), but I wanted to rant about it here - get the word out, yes?
So, seeing as my voter registration is for Texas and I am currently attending school in Georgia, it was a no brainer that I would need to vote absentee this year. I did it last year for when we voted on governor/etc (totally voted for Kinky Friedman, btw! FUCK YES JEWISH COWBOY!), so I was familiar with the process and sent off my request in what I had thought was a timely manner - that being about a month ago.
Well, this past week arrived, and I had yet to see hide nor ink-covered papery hair of my absentee ballot, so I called up the Harris County Voting Clerk's office. Long story short, I got transferred to about 5 different people, each time having to go through a lengthy process of spelling out my name (multiple times, ugh) and pulling my hair out as they fail to find me in the database. At first I feared I had been purged (not a completely off-base assumption, all recent goings-on considered!), but it was eventually discovered that some idiot decided to put a random space in my last name where the apostrophe should have gone! A+ for you, Mr/Ms. Voting Registration Person.
Anyway, once they managed to actually find me (X_x what an agonizing process!), the woman I was talking to had to nerve to TRANSFER ME AGAIN. And what kind words did she impart to me as an excuse? "I'm going to transfer you to someone who will listen to your complaints." Um. Yeah, okay. FUCK YOU, HARRIS COUNTY VOTING LADY! I'll just take me and my complaints to someone who fucking matters! Ugh. *rages* Oh, and I almost forgot - my phone lost connection at one point during this... erm, endeavor, and I ended up repeating the process all over again. *RAGERAGE*
SO! I'm finally transferred to someone who deems me important enough to give me some effing information, and they tell me that their records say that they received my absentee request, that everything cleared A-OK, and that they mailed out my ballot on October 7th.
All well and good, yes? Except for one thing - that was 3 weeks ago. And it still hasn't arrived yet? Something smells AWFULLY FISHY. And its not the sink in my apartment. (Well, er... but you get the drift. :P) I express to them how important voting in this election is to me and how worried I am that the ballot won't get here in time for me to vote. Ms. Helpful oh-so-pleasantly informs me that I can fax them a statement telling them how my ballot never arrived and that they should cancel it and send me a new one. Okay, I can do that - simple, really! But here's the kicker - there's no guarantee that the new ballot will reach me on time.
...
Did I hear that right? Did I just hear you tell me that you can't guarantee me my Constitution-given right to VOTE? Cause let me just get this on the record - it is in NO WAY my fault that my first ballot hasn't arrived yet. I am not a mail god or something! I cannot control the post office or the transit of its correspondences! It is your own goddamn fault that you don't put freakin' tracking numbers on posts as important as things like fraggin' election ballots. (Doesn't that make so much sense? You'd think they'd want to know that these ballots get to where they're supposed to go instead of God-Knows-Where-Town of Fuckin-Wherever-State. But no, it's not their job to make sure people vote; rather they want to keep as many people from voting as possible. Silence the people's voice and all that shit.)
Okay, that internal monologue out of the way, I agreed to send the request - after confirming that I could send it via e-mail instead, as I don't have access to a fax machine for long-distance correspondence. I do so the very next day. This was a grand total of FIVE DAYS AGO. Ballot did not arrive by Friday, so I can only hope that it's here on Monday, or at the very least Tuesday morning. If I recall correctly, as long as it's postmarked for November 4th, it will still count.
If it never gets here? Well, I am sorely tempted to contact media people. Funny how somebody like myself who wants nothing more than to vote and take part in her nation's most important event is being kept from doing so through no fault of her own. Yes, funny how the world works that way.
Ya know, it makes me wonder. Last year, they lost my voters registration, and I had to send in a new one. Then they put a typo in my name, which will probably cause me whole universes of trouble whenever I get to vote in person, as the name on my ID won't match my voter registration. And now THIS? I don't know, guys. I just don't know. Somebody clearly doesn't want me to make my voice heard.
LOL LONG-WINDED RANT IS LONG-WINDED~