If you don’t vote . . . don’t bitch

I grew up in the cradle of American Revolution. For several years we lived right next to Lexington where some of- the first shots in the American Revolution were fired.

All through high school we lived out on the elbow of Cape Cod and pure democracy reigned. We had what is called “Town Meeting” government. Once a year a “Warrant” was drawn up and all the voters and taxpayers in town assembled at the high school auditorium to vote on all the projects to be down in the town for the next year and to vote on appropriating the tax funds to follow through. I was steeped in the entire ethic of voting. With the single exception of 1992 I have voted in every presidential election since 1964. I didn’t vote in ’92 because I was off on a nine-month cruise on my sailboat from Ft. Lauderdale to Mexico, Belize and the Rio Dulce in Guatemala and back. The guy I would have voted for, Bill Clinton, won anyway so it didn’t matter whether I voted that or not.

A couple of months ago when I reregistered my boat I also changed my address and made sure I was registered to vote.

Supposedly it was all taken care of. The day before the recent primary election I went online to see where I was supposed to vote. It gave me a location in Holmes Beach. When I got there and checked in they said I wasn’t at the right location and then we spent nearly an hour trying to straighten things out. I ended up filling out a “Provisional” ballot. I knew things weren’t going to go well when they didn’t have a clue as to what to do with it after I’d sealed and signed the envelope the ballot was in.

Today I went to the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office to straighten things out. Easy to get to. Hop on the #6 bus, ride it to the end of the line at DeSoto Station. The El;ections office is adjacent to the terminal.

Everything about my registration was all screwed up. The address they had for me was one that I used a single time in Bradenton to get some insurance papers. I had to fill out new paperwork and then there was still some computer problems with the application. A supervisor was called out to go over everything. It was then that I found out that muy Provisional ballot had NOT BEEN COUNTED! That’s because the address they had is a mail drop so it was rejected.

I explained that since I live anchored on my boat I don’t have a permanent residential address. Seems this is not actually a big problem. I was registered using the Elections Office as my residence. Seems that THAT is legal where a drop box isn’t. So. with the help of an elections officer I’m all signed up and was told where my poling place is located. They also said I could “Vote by Mail.” But I’m not sure I trust that, and since this coming election is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT I’m going to take the two busses necessary and vote in person

If you don’t vote you forfeit your right to bitch about what’s going on…