The digital world still has a few speed bumps -- especially, when it comes to elections.
About a month ago, I told you in i'm gonna sit right down and cast myself a ballot,that earlier in the summer, I had requested an absentee ballot from Nevada. The request process was rather old-fashioned. I had to print off a paper form, fill it out, sign it, stuff it into an envelope, and mail it to the good folks in the Washoe County elections office.
A couple of months later, I received a letter in my postal box here reassuring me my request had been received and approved, and that the absentee ballot had been mailed. I would receive mine soon.
I didn't. At least, not soon. It showed up a couple days ago.
There was no time to get the ballot back before election day if I mailed it. But Nevada is far more progressive in voting than it is in requesting an absentee ballot. Just like four years ago, I can vote by scanning the ballot along with a rather straight-forward declaration, and vote by email.
It is just as well that I waited. I knew who my candidates for the senate and the house were going to be. But I was still not certain how I was going to vote for president. My dilemma was summed up well by a friend who dresses to the left: "Seems like we are faced with a choice of someone whose stated intent (not in so many words) is to start WWIII or an iconoclastic groper."
While on my trip to Michoacán, the answer came to me. It was an elegant solution. Like most Americans, I have been appalled by our choices in November. I wake up every morning hoping to read a newspaper headline similar to "Hillary dies in fiery car crash while driving over Trump." But it was just a dream. We are stuck with those choices.
I have made mine. And I am not going to share it with you. No matter what I did, it is basically shameful. The good thing is that the vote will make no difference -- even though Nevada is one of this year's swing states.
I can at least say I cast my ballot -- and I can sleep tonight with a clear conscience.
* -- For those of you who are interested in such arcane American electoral facts, that photograph may violate the law in several states.
About a month ago, I told you in i'm gonna sit right down and cast myself a ballot,that earlier in the summer, I had requested an absentee ballot from Nevada. The request process was rather old-fashioned. I had to print off a paper form, fill it out, sign it, stuff it into an envelope, and mail it to the good folks in the Washoe County elections office.
A couple of months later, I received a letter in my postal box here reassuring me my request had been received and approved, and that the absentee ballot had been mailed. I would receive mine soon.
I didn't. At least, not soon. It showed up a couple days ago.
There was no time to get the ballot back before election day if I mailed it. But Nevada is far more progressive in voting than it is in requesting an absentee ballot. Just like four years ago, I can vote by scanning the ballot along with a rather straight-forward declaration, and vote by email.
It is just as well that I waited. I knew who my candidates for the senate and the house were going to be. But I was still not certain how I was going to vote for president. My dilemma was summed up well by a friend who dresses to the left: "Seems like we are faced with a choice of someone whose stated intent (not in so many words) is to start WWIII or an iconoclastic groper."
While on my trip to Michoacán, the answer came to me. It was an elegant solution. Like most Americans, I have been appalled by our choices in November. I wake up every morning hoping to read a newspaper headline similar to "Hillary dies in fiery car crash while driving over Trump." But it was just a dream. We are stuck with those choices.
I have made mine. And I am not going to share it with you. No matter what I did, it is basically shameful. The good thing is that the vote will make no difference -- even though Nevada is one of this year's swing states.
I can at least say I cast my ballot -- and I can sleep tonight with a clear conscience.
* -- For those of you who are interested in such arcane American electoral facts, that photograph may violate the law in several states.
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