Primaries

Today was the New Jersey primary. For me, elections make me giddy. Seriously! What a wonderful thing it is to participate in that which defines us. One man, one vote. Such a simple concept, but yet so powerful.

My daughter is 11 months old. She has voted four times so far: November’s general election (presidential), April’s school board, May’s municipal, and today’s primary. The skeptic in me thinks this is more frequent than most. Beetle loves the attention she receives at the voting place. She has worn her “Wee” Publican bib before, but for some reason had it off today.

My folks never took me into the voting booth. But I think it is good experience. A child should see her parents excited to vote. We make a big deal out of the process because it is a big deal. Our candidates do not always win, but we are part of the process. We have voiced our say. Only if everyone did. A vounteer at the polling place stated about 1500 folks are registered to vote there. The municipal election had gotten over 1000 of them out. That is great! But at after 6:00 PM this evening, only about 50 people had voted in the primary. They stated some polling places had only 20 thus far.

I am in favor of mailing ballots. I support investigating Internet voting. I believe combining elections (obviously not primaries) into one is a good thing. But until we get there, where is everyone’s sense of civic responsibility? While I could support someone’s conviction not to participate, I suspect it is not strong conviction which keeps the masses away.

Beetle is seeing a different example. We shall see if that makes a difference.

Also blogged on this date . . .

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