I've written a couple of times over the years about our (Florida's) inability to vote properly. We all remember how we held up the election between Bush and Gore for several weeks.
This time I was excited because we heard for weeks prior to the current presidential election that those who live in the "I-4 Corridor" would decide this election. I live less than a mile from I-4. I'm in the corridor.
Oh boy, knowing that I, personally, was responsible for the election, I was nervous as I filled out my absentee ballot - all FOUR PAGES of it - and carefully mailed it the proper way.
But, as it turns out, my vote didn't count. At all! None of the I-4 Corridor votes counted. Four days after the election we Floridians still had not gotten our vote counting act together. John King's map showed red states and blue states and then Florida hanging down there all yellow. (Like the "hanging chads" from the past botched election.)
Embarrassing. We contributed nothing, nada, butkus to the national election. We were impotent. How sad.
My personal apologies to both candidates and their spouses who broke their necks getting here over and over again. You never knew when you were going to look up and see Ann or Michelle. Dave and I were in a restaurant a couple of weeks ago. Sitting next to us were state troopers all decked out in their best. When we engaged them in conversation one of them told us they'd just rushed President Obama on to a plane so that he could deal with Hurricane Sandy. Then he told us that, two days prior, they'd rushed Governor Romney onto his plane. They all seemed proud.
I hope these Florida State Troopers still think that what they did, to get the candidates in and out quickly and safely, was important because it was. But not as important as it should have been.
***
This time I was excited because we heard for weeks prior to the current presidential election that those who live in the "I-4 Corridor" would decide this election. I live less than a mile from I-4. I'm in the corridor.
Oh boy, knowing that I, personally, was responsible for the election, I was nervous as I filled out my absentee ballot - all FOUR PAGES of it - and carefully mailed it the proper way.
But, as it turns out, my vote didn't count. At all! None of the I-4 Corridor votes counted. Four days after the election we Floridians still had not gotten our vote counting act together. John King's map showed red states and blue states and then Florida hanging down there all yellow. (Like the "hanging chads" from the past botched election.)
Embarrassing. We contributed nothing, nada, butkus to the national election. We were impotent. How sad.
My personal apologies to both candidates and their spouses who broke their necks getting here over and over again. You never knew when you were going to look up and see Ann or Michelle. Dave and I were in a restaurant a couple of weeks ago. Sitting next to us were state troopers all decked out in their best. When we engaged them in conversation one of them told us they'd just rushed President Obama on to a plane so that he could deal with Hurricane Sandy. Then he told us that, two days prior, they'd rushed Governor Romney onto his plane. They all seemed proud.
I hope these Florida State Troopers still think that what they did, to get the candidates in and out quickly and safely, was important because it was. But not as important as it should have been.
***
