I love our mail ballot system....

but I miss the excitement of actually GOING to punch a ballot. Voter turnout here in Oregon was estimated at about 65%-70% yesterday already.....the record was during Kennedy-Nixon which was 86.5% turnout.

I like getting up early on a November morning and going to the polls, getting my hands dirty in democracy. Mail balloting seems somehow "less" an exercise of democracy than pushing the buttons or punching the card. Just me though.

election day before dropping off the ballot. or jumping into a mud puddle so you can get dirty :D

I'm just saying I like the actual experiences of voting - the senory aspects of it. And mail balloting, absentee, etc. kind of remove that aspect of things.

Part of it is ritualization on my part - my mom always took me to the polls when I was a kid and I can remember being in the booth, pulling the levers she told me to, etc. So part of it is certainly a call back to childhood.

But I also like the social aspect of it - standing among your fellow citizens and exercising your rights. It just somehow seems, idunno, patriotic or something to me.

But I have to admit, while wifey and I were standing in a one hour line this AM, I turned to her and said, in my best Ralph Wiggum, "Democracy makes my feet hurt".

Mostly