You know the guy who wallpapered his cubicle in plastic American flags after 9/11 and still hasn’t taken them down? The one who sends out the emails with the crappy photoshops of Hillary Clinton with horns and a pitchfork?

He voted. He went early, actually.

The lady who mass-emails everyone in the building with the joke about how voting for Bush is like running in the Special Olympics?

She’s voting over lunch.

That jackass with the website who never talks about politics and has never voted before but decides to make a big deal out of it simply because it’s his first time at the polls this year?

He went this morning. Took him twenty minutes to find the right building, but he voted.

Think of the most annoying person you know. Think about how they’re going to vote. Realize that they will be heard.

Go. If nothing else motivates you, remember you can vote opposite some guy you don’t like to cancel their vote out.

It’s the American way. :)

Congrats Doyce!

I'm still very shocked that you've never voted before. Coming from from two families that always discussed politics at dinner I guess I'm more inclined to particapate. I'm glad you did your part for Country.

P.S.

Is there a reason that my info in not being stored for comments? And why aren't the Bold, Underline buttons working?

Congratulations and a job well done. "Today you are a citizen."

And, FWIW, I agree with most of what you voted for in your other comments-turned-off post (heh), though you conflated my arguments on two different ballot proposals into one. :-)

Y'know, I was analyzing my history of non-participation this morning and it's sort of interesting. Not making excuses, but there are at least some historical correlations:

First major election I was eligible to participate in: 1992.

I was: In the middle of the second year of my first marriage, and things are sliding rapidly at that point. A.K.A.: Hell. I distinctly remember telling someone at the time, "No one I vote for is going to make the things that suck in my life any better -- none of my problems are from politics." Also, I was going to college, so I didn't have a "home", per se -- my registered voting district was four hours away from where I lived and the ballot was full of stuff I could not have given less of a damn about. (In my defense, I did vote on college-related stuff.)

Second major election I was eligible to participate in: 1996.

I was: a recent arrival in Denver. I didn't know anything about any of the issues in the area, and there's a good chance (I can't remember) that I still had my South Dakota driver's license at that point. At the presidential level: c'mon, Clinton's the incumbent and is clearly going to beat Dole like a narc a biker rally.

Third major election I was eligible to participate in: 2000.

This one I can hang me head about. No excuses here: I was a homeowner with a lot invested in the community. I remember filling out the registration card -- I just never remembered to send it in. My bad.

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Re: Comment issues -- hell if I know -- the formatting buttons haven't even been VISIBLE to me since I switched to Firefox (I'm assuming because the code isn't compliant). The cookie thing I'm not sure about.

Really, I need to upgrade to MT 3.0 and update my templates -- that would probably fix everything most of the stuff that doesn't work.

Dave: Ahh yeah -- I was writing everything out and realized that what I'd written on topic A was really more of a rant for topic B, so I copy-pasted it down and took with it your comments on topic A. My bad.

That's what I get for nicking your post format, I guess. :)

For having voted, you are forgiven, my son.

It's extremely cool that you went to the effort to vote, Doyce. Your vote did count. It's there in the popular vote, even if it didn't change your state.

Good luck to you all.

I so want to vote... wish I could, but wishes only get you so far.

So... are there any single American citizens (female) out there? =)