Civic Duty

NOTE: Whenever people ask a question on the comments page, I try to respond over email so that it can turn into a dialogue. However, if there is no email available, then my response goes on the comments page. Catherine, you can see my response to your post there.

Election day in Illinois was a week ago. I can't say that I have lived there in a real sense for a few years now (contrary to what my driver's license might say). But I am still proud to call myself a Chicagoan (my suburb is a lot closer to the Loop than a lot of other people who call themselves Chicagoans, at any rate). I still actively follow local affairs, and if I ever return to the states, I'd love to live in Chicago. (My father maintains that the city is so great that everyone should live there so that he never has to travel anywhere)

Now, I don't feel any remorse over missing jury duty. I've been summoned three times, and each time I have been at least 1000 miles away. But I do feel pangs of conscience about elections. I have successfully voted in absentia once (I kinda lost one of the pieces of paperwork from my ballot one year, so I'm assuming that even though I mailed it in, my vote was not counted) and once have I been in Illinois on election day to cast my ballot. There was an election last week for some state-wide primaries and local elections, and I missed it. Honestly, I hadn't done my homework on most of the races. There was only one race where I had a specific candidate in mind. And sadly, in that race, my candidate lost.

The postal system is an absolute nightmare here, but that is no excuse. I had my opportunity to participate in democracy (anyone up for a lively debate on a certain recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision on campaign finance?), and I passed it up. As much as I encourage people to exercise their right to vote everywhere that I go (presidential poll in Tanzania this year--let's root for high voter turnout!), I have passed up several elections because it was inconvenient for me. Still, I refuse to be labeled complacent. I am vowing (and this isn't like those vows that I make about more blog posts or anything like that) to research and vote in November of this year, no matter how inconvenient it is to do so from Tanzania, or wherever I may be. I hope that you (assuming that you are eligible) will do the same.