Oh the joys of voting absentee!

Guess what I did today? Tried to sort out the whole absentee voting thing! I got my ballot in the mail like 2-3 weeks ago, and it's been sitting, staring at me ever since. Being the queen of procrastination, I kept putting off figuring it out. But it's crunch time now, and although Fed-Ex will so thoughtfully ship it back to the US overnight for FREE (yes, for free, how kick ass is that?) I still need to get it sent off so I don't stress over it anymore.

I think I should preface this rant with a little warning: Government forms piss me off! I have seen so bloody many of them in my life that I've reached my saturation limit. The immigration process of both the US and NZ have just pushed me way over the edge and I have no tolerance for these things anymore! I even start to squirm and scrunch up my face when I have to fill out one of those stupid "entry cards" they give you on the airplane when you're flying internationally! It's a serious problem.

So today I sat down with all the stuff and the ballot. For some reason I thought it would be as easy as connecting the lines, stuffing it all in an envelope, and taking it to the Fed-Ex place, thereby not triggering my government forms rage, right? WRONG!

First off, I don't do "straight party vote" because I don't trust the machine/a person to automatically count the votes properly. A few places have had problems with it in past elections and I'm far too paranoid to go with it, so I'll sit and connect every line.

Second, I forgot I've got to send them a copy of my state issued driver's license or Social Security card for identification purposes, or at least I THINK it can be a copy. It better be, they aren't getting the real thing, they'll lose it!

Third, I did not realise that I apparently have to get 2 witnesses to sign or a notary to affirm that I am who I am and it's my form! *snort*

Fourth, what is up with all the Constitutional Amendments in Alabama? Huh? Freakin' 6 of them this time! So thank you very much, now I have to go hunt down information on them to inform my vote. *grumbling* And besides that, what's with the offices up for election that only have one person running for them, or in one case, NO PERSON listed on them? How does that happen? Now I have to go find people worthy of being written in? *scratches head*

All in all it'll be worth it once I have everything sorted out, because I truly believe in exercising my right to vote (it's a privilege many in this world don't have!). But that doesn't stop the process from being annoying at times. ;-p