As of November 3rd, ballot has still not been received. It appears, according to the Supervisor of Elections website, that my ballot has been sent to a NY address with a FL zip code. I called several democratic support hotlines and volunteers to get guidance on where to go next. I ended up speaking to the Office of Supervisor of Elections again (yet a different employee) and she told me that it was only mailed out Oct 31st!! However, she believed that it was sent to the proper address. Hmph! Now look @ all of this drama! I now have to try to leave work early so I can go home and check my mail and then speed over to the USPS to send this overnight for a good $20. In the end, if all of that happens, I will have to *hope* that my vote got counted! Wow....Democracy in America, where are you?
Interestingly enough, my political trials and tribulations have inevitably made me very participative in current politics. I have read about voting rights among other democratic "freedoms", becoming exceedingly interested in American law and politics, social justice, and the history of government. I must also highlight that my political victimization has made me realize how super it is that I am currently an MPA student, ironically studying the subjects that are related to the very politics and government that I am questioning as a citizen presently. I do not know where this experience will take me but it has bestowed a great deal towards my political education and has developed somewhat a fervor in me to serve the politically underserved somehow. Maybe that JD is in the works after all...or is it a PhD in social justice/social policy I doubt the latter as I have recently had the perception that a philosophical degree would not induce enough activity although it would involve much thinking and empirical contribution; I think I am a practitioner at heart, a doer for a cause, not simply a pensive researcher.
I close with this thought: my experience in the historical political process of the 2008 elections has forever changed my life....for the good. Through this I may now consider working as an advocate in the political arena, which I would have never considered before my public administration graduate studies and which I hardly thought of even after my academic program began. I am excited about my new future in politics. Will I now consider being a volunteer for future (perhaps even the current) elections? Yes. Will I now speak out with even more passion about voting and its importance to my family and friends? Definitely. Will I feel as though I have contributed to democracy even if I am denied my right to vote this year? You bet.
Even if this experience leads ONLY to my leisurely reading a book on US democracy, my person and its education toolbox is better for it. I am forever changed as a US citizen and happily so.
For further reading:
Marchette Gaylord Chute, The First Liberty: A History of the Right to Vote in America, 1619-1850 (New York: Dutton, 1969).
Linda K. Kerber, No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship (New York: Hill & Wang, 1998).
Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (New York: Basic Books, 2000).
Donald W. Rogers, ed., Voting and the Spirit of American Democracy (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992).
Charles L. Zelden, Voting Rights on Trial (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2002).
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