*fume*
Pissed! Argh! I have thrown my vote away! Ok, too melodramatic. Not quite thrown it away, but it's been essentially wasted!
Why? Well, I'm not registered to any party and thus get to choose during the Primary which party I'll participate in. I thought I might apply my vote with judicial strategic forethought.
I researched the crap out of the candidates - I spent days digging up what I could on potential candidates. My findings and recent events resulted with a Democrat vote for Obama.
So what happened? My Mom.
I talked to her on Saturday and the brief (because that's all it took) discussion of politics revealed that she was voting against me - No amount of reason did a lick of good. Thus, all of my research, all of my careful weighing of potential consequences went up against... gender.
My mom voted for a candidate purely based on her gender and nothing more:"We need a woman in Whitehouse!"
"Do you know her voting record?"
"...no."
"What do you think of her claim of presidential experience?"
"I don't know about that, but It's about time we had a woman in the Whitehouse!"
Yeah. That's it: X instead of Y chromosome was the qualification.
I would've been fine with her decision had there been a couple of brain cells dedicated to the event, but my literal days-worth of research got essentially canceled out today by microseconds of un-thought.
I know there are tons of people who fall into that category, but being able to tie your vote to someone you know, let alone family... That I'm not happy about that.
I should've known better than to ask.