As an expat, I’ve watched the last four elections north of the border. Some years, I’ve been able to participate. Each ballot submission requires advance planning, snail mail, and a lot of annoying, ancient forms.
Each state does voting differently. After all, this generates a lot of the post-election ruckus. It allows for candidates to have something to complain about if the polls aren’t favorable. Blame it on the voting style! The year 2000 featured “hanging chads.” Unfortunately, in 2020, much of the dispute focused on electronic voting. The claims were largely fictitious and eventually disproved. However, all I could think about was my dashed hopes for one day voting electronically in CT.
A fellow American expat seemed genuinely shocked at my voting experience. This was a couple elections ago. Each time I contact the registrar in my home state, I hope for a different outcome. I want a modern, efficient and reliable process. We’re encouraged to vote and yet, it can be a difficult and frustrating process in some parts of the US. Then I hear criticism for not voting.
Since I moved after the last election in 2020, I started the process to get a ballot at the end of the summer. Anticipating another paper ballot, I started the process in early September. This time I was able to search online for my registration. I couldn’t locate it. This was not entirely surprising because I have a complicated last name. I often find it misspelled or punctuated incorrectly. I located the registrar’s office email and sent a ballot request. Before going on vacation in early October, I repeated the process certain that I would come home to a ballot in my mailbox, or instructions. Nothing.
I logged on to a federal website to try and print out a ballot. Somehow I couldn’t download the form and was unable to get it out in time.
When the stakes are so high and the consequences so dire, why is the basic action of casting a ballot still so difficult? Why are there so many variations? Why is the process a weird hybrid of some electronic elements combined with some very manual ones?
Since that rocky election in 2004 that drove me north over the border, I declared the “Dark and Stormy” as my official election night drink. I’ll be having those (yes, plural) tomorrow night to watch the ruckus.