I Voted!

Yesterday was Election Day here in the US, which meant a day off from work for me. (Side note: It's amazing what a day off in the middle of the week can do for you! I went to a doctor's appointment, participated in a mid-day yoga class, voted, cooked a big casserole for the week's lunches and still had time to relax.) 

Do you vote? I know it's required in some countries, but not here.

linking up for wordless Wednesday

Comments

  1. Bravo, Amanda! I am proud of you for taking the time to vote!!

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    1. Aww, thank you! Having the day off definitely made voting easy to fit in :)

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  2. We definitely vote! We usually go to advanced polls to beat the election day line ups. Having the day off would make it much easier to go on the day of though!

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    1. I've never heard of advanced polls. It's just the one day here. The lines weren't bad, either - the whole process took less than 10 minutes. So having the whole day off isn't necessary, but so nice just the same :)

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  3. I'm SO thankful the election is over - I'm sick of the negative ads.

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  4. AAARRRRG! OK third time's a charm? I hate blogger's "sign out" button - it's always where I think the submit button should be and I ALWAYS sign out when I man to submit!

    Well anyhow, here in Colorado all of our elections are done by mail-in ballot, so I voted weeks ago. There are no excuses for not voting here... but no days off either!

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    1. Learn something new every day! I had no idea that a whole state could do away with Election Day voting and just do everything by mail. Only absentee voters are able to vote in advance here. Glad to hear you voted :)

      And I agree with you about the sign out button - plus that's where "publish" is on many of the other comment forms!

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  5. Arrgh! I am certain I left a comment days ago! Maybe it went to spam?

    Good work with the voting and I hope you were happy with the outcome. Here we get fined quite heftily if we don't vote so that's quite an incentive!

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    1. I'm so sorry! Blogger seems to be eating comments at an alarming rate these days.

      I was happy with some of the people elected, of course not everyone I voted for won, but that's the way it goes. A fine would be an incentive for me as well!

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  6. I read this post whilst I was away, and watching CNN (the only English channel in New Caledonia). I can't say it meant much to me, though I came to know Joni, in one state. I was also astounded to find out what my BF knew about US politics, and how you vote a third of the congresspeople every two years - had no idea!!

    Australia has compulsory voting, so a vote is always on a Saturday and held in school halls most of the time... So no days off, but when I worked weekends, at both school and a florist, we were 'let out' to vote if we didn't prevote, which I usually did as I tended to find myself passing a polling booth the week prior, and it's WAY less busy then!

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    1. I don't know much about foreign politics - not an area of interest for me - so while I know how US elections work, I don't think I could tell you much about how they work in other places!

      Elections are often held in schools or public spaces (libraries, meeting halls, etc.) here, hence the day off. The US votes on Tuesday because the law was created in 1845 to avoid travel on Sunday and market/shopping day (Wednesday). I like the option to prevote - that's not available here!

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  7. I love the walk up to the local primary or high school to vote on a Saturday. There's always a cake stall and a BBQ held by the school's parent group to raise funds. A chat with others from the local area while you queue. Love it.

    Of course as Sarah and Fiona have posted - voting in Australia is compulsory. Not just our national/federal elections but our state and local council elections. Don't vote without a good reason and you can be fined. It does mean we don't have the situation where people don't vote but then complain about the politicians.

    Well done you for voting. Democracy requires of its citizens certain responsibilities. And one of those is voting. (Together with being somewhat informed. I do despair that many votes are cast without any idea of the issues or what the people standing for election actually stand for.)

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    1. I guess having people vote randomly would be a problem you'd face if voting was mandatory. Oblivious people here usually don't bother to vote, so I assume the ones who do vote at least know a little bit about the issues and candidates.

      I also like visiting the local school to vote - fun to see their projects on display in the hallway!

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