I voted today. But let me tell you: it wasn’t easy. Voting by absentee ballot is a daunting process and they certainly don’t go out of their way to make it any easier.
First, I had to request a ballot. To do this, I had to fill out a form that I downloaded off the internet. There are many general application forms to be found on the internet that can be used for any state, but each state requires different information. For example, the form I used asked for my Voter ID Number, but I didn’t even know what a Voter ID was! No problem: Florida does not require this bit on info on their application. That took a healthy bit of research to find out.
Then I had to find the address of the Board of Elections of my county and mail it in. Then, almost three weeks later, I received my ballot in the mail. I didn’t think it would take that long so I found myself with very little time to fill it out and send it off. After filling out the ballot (school board election and all), I was reading the fine print when I found the little ditty that said that if I committed voter fraud (like voting when not registered), I could be fined up to $5000 and/or imprisoned for up to 5 years. It was right about then that I started the question whether I was actually registered to vote in Florida or not. I had never voted in Florida before. In fact, I had never even lived in Florida. But when I moved to Spain from New York, my parents moved to The Sunshine State and I have since renewed my driver’s license there. So I thought I was registered. But the 5 years in prison next to some guy named “Bunny” made me want to make sure. So I got a couple phone numbers off my sister Rebecca (who happens to be working as a polling monitor this year) and spent the next three days trying to call the Board of Elections to verify that I was indeed registered to vote in Florida. I finally got through and they assured me that I would not have received the ballot in the mail if I was not registered. Good enough for me.
I was now left with only five days before Election Day. Luckily, I was able to fax my ballot instead of hoping the always-punctual Spanish mail system would deliver my ballot to Florida before 7pm, November 2. Even though it says right on the ballot instructions that you can send your ballot my fax, one of the necessary sheets is entirely too wide to fit into any standard fax machine! So I had to photocopy this page and reduce it before heading off to find a fax machine. I then had to explain in Spanish to the deaf store owner (literally) that I wanted to fax both sides of these extremely long sheets and my reduced photocopy to the United States. Thanks goodness my Spanish lip movements were good enough for him to understand me because, after about half an hour, I had the confirmation receipt in my hand verifying that I had in fact voted in the 2004 Presidential Election. Did I mention that it cost 8.20€ to fax the damn thing? I guess democracy has its price.
