That's right - thank God it's Wednesday. Finally, I can get past daily calls from automated messages supporting one senate candidate or another. I can stop having to answer the door for pollsters. My garbage will become considerably lighter for not having to throw away volumes of promotional material.
Maybe it's just me and the fact that this is the first election (non-presedential) for which I've been old enough to pay attention, not in school, and mostly rooted in a community, but this election seemed to bring out more of the irritating stuff I mentioned earlier than any other election I remember, including the presidential election a couple years ago.
As I went to fill out my ballot, I felt horribly uneducated about what I was doing. For one, of the 30 or so races listed, I only knew of about 4. Do I really care who the clerk of courts is? Sometimes I wonder - how does one win such a race except my sheer good luck that more people will like your name over your opponent's? For this race, I did try to pay attention to the candidates and what they stand for, especially with the governor election, which was likely to be close (for the house and senate seats, the elections weren't even expected to be up for debate). I watched a debate on TV. I went to their websites. All I could see was the two major candidates trying to bash each other. What do they stand for? I have no freaking idea! I just know that they don't like what their opponent has done, in the past.
When it came time to go to the polls, I had three options...
1. Vote for the democratic candidate (I consider myself more on the liberal side so, when in doubt, I vote democractic). The problem with this is that I really dislike the democratic candidate and would prefer the republican. So I gues that's out.
2. I could vote for the republican, who I like, but I really know little about what he stands for because he spent most of his time bashing the democratic candidate (although considerably less time than the democratic candidate, himeself, spent bashing the republican).
3. Or, I could essentially throw away my vote in a very tight race and vote for the independent candidate, who is the one that I really liked. The two other candidates were too busy bashing one another to focus on the independent so I actually got to hear what he believes in, and, frankly, I liked his ideas a lot. The only problem was that there was no chance of him winning the election.
So, what to do? Vote "my conscience" and go with the independent and toss my vote away in a tight race, or vote for the republican candidate, only because I like him more than the democratic candidate?
Frankly, I'm just glad it's over. And now, the morning after the balloting, I sit here watching the outcome of the race which is, as of yet, undecided. Of the 2,196,997 votes that have been counted, the republican candidate holds a lead of 13,900 votes. For those of you that love math (or maybe just for myself), that's a lead of roughly .63%. I suppse one could consider that to be a close race.
And that independent that I mentioned? He garnered a grand total of 6% of the vote.
I'm just glad it's over.
