Disenfranchised...Sorta

Well, I went to the polls this morning. I vote (or at least try to) at the local Mennonite church down the road about a half mile, Community Bible Church they call it. I guess being Mennonite isn't such a great draw these days; pictures of ladies with little baskets on their hair buns... This church isn't like that at all, though.

So, after misjudging how long it was going to take me to get out the door this morning and get over to the polling place, I arrive at the church right at 7am-ish. Doors are already open, donuts & coffee await us early birds, about 25 or so in all so far. I get in line and wait my turn, drinking my coffee, eating my forbidden donut (chocolate, with blue sprinkles!). I saunter up, thinking to myself, man, back in the August primary, I'd had to vote provisionally, since I'd failed to re-register my new address after buying and moving into the new house. But I figure, well, I'll prolly be on the rolls this time since I voted here last time. I go up to the election judges, and shazam! No name on the rolls!!! I'm forced to vote provisionally again!

I take the paper ballot, after spending time filling out my voter information for identification purposes, and head to the "voting machine" (actually just one of the voting machine boxes/tables with the little walls that make it difficult to write legibly. So, I take my black ink pen and begin laboriously filling in the little ovals on the ballot. By now, I'm angry, so you Kansas judges wondering why you were all turned out of office...well, heh heh...that's why. I get done and take a look at the little slip of paper the election judge hands me (after apologizing to me for not getting my name on the rolls this time...even though my WIFE was on the rolls!) and I notice that MY vote won't even be counted until next Monday! AFTER the election is (*hopefully*) long since decided. After that time, I can call and see if my vote was even counted. By then, I hope that it won't matter anyway.

So, I was sort of disenfranchised, but beings it's Kansas, and Kansas being what it is, I'm not as angry. If I lived in a true battleground state, I think I'd be fuming. Or if I wasn't confident that the electors for Kansas were going the way they're expected to go anyway, I'd be much more concerned. Still, it sucks that in the election of a lifetime (aren't they all?), my vote really probably won't count.

C'est la vie!