Super Tuesday

I get all of these Facebook posts telling me how easy it is to vote while living abroad. You can vote ANYWHERE! It’s so easy!

That’s like the McDonald’s commercials with all the really pretty teenagers smiling at you like they want nothing more than to make a perfect meal for you. Then, you know, reality.

So last week we downloaded ballot application forms that we filled out and printed. We mailed a hard copy to Chester County and scanned then sent a soft copy. Here’s my envelope.

Then we get an e-mail with a list of 14 instructions.

After following all these steps, we both printed our ballots, which came with two pages of instructions, a verification page, and a printed/bar coded address. We were to fill in the ballot, put it in a blank, sealed envelope, put that and the verification form in another envelope, and tape the printed/bar coded address onto the outside of the bigger envelope.

David thought to use the “shrink to fit” feature for his ballot and I didn’t so portions of my ballot were cut off. Does this matter? I don’t know. I decided to take our ballots to the U.S. Consulate, having read that you could have your ballot sent by diplomatic pouch. At the consulate, I learned that only embassies can send a diplomatic pouch so consular mail would have to go to London first and tomorrow is the deadline for ballots to arrive in London. So the helpful woman said I should use the Royal Post. I asked her if my cut-off ballot would cause a problem if the ballot were machine read. She called Chester County voting and the consensus seemed to be that the ballot would be OK.

So I went to the Royal Post and the nice gentleman taped the addresses to the large envelopes I purchased from him. The envelopes plus postage came to about $8 for both of our ballots.

I don’t think I’ve ever missed an election. However all I ever had to do before was show up and fill in my ballot. This was extreme voting, however this is an extreme election. If I had to buy and train a carrier pigeon to do my bit for Hillary, that is what I would do. I’m not entirely certain our ballots will get counted but I’ve followed all the steps and done my best to save my country from itself.
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