A couple years ago I registered to vote; however, on the day of the election there was some kind of crisis at work, and I was not able to participate. So this year was the first that I participated in the U.S. election process.

Here in Thompsonville, the line was very short. I think I had one person standing in front of me, and then I had a few minutes of waiting before a voting booth was cleared. It was educational in a small but significant way. The first thing I realized is that I had absolutely no opinion about 80-90% of the candidates, either personally or in terms of their platforms (I’m including all positions, including local government). I voted on a few people that I had some opinion of, but mostly stuck to laws and propositions.

One humorous thing about our local election is that several of the positions had only one person running for them. It was like being in an old East Bloc nation where you can vote, but there is only one name on the ballot. 

There was also a section about local judges where you could actually vote against someone; that was surprising, although it may be perfectly normal (is it that way everywhere?).

On the way out I got a little “I Voted” sticker, now adorning my computer at work. It was satisfying to participate as one little pebble, adding a very tiny but important weight to the giant scales of democracy.