Election rant

Okay, so I firmly believe that if you can't take the time to vote, you have no right to complain about the state of anything in this country. Yeah, it's just one vote, and I'm often just cancelling out my husband, but it means this whole flawed system matters to me. There are only a very few excuses I will allow.

I don't know if it's this way in the whole state of Virginia, but my kids were out of school today. Not really sure why, unless it actually is an attempt to suppress women's votes, as was jokingly suggested by my husband's co-worker. It probably has something to do with lots of random people in the school while kids are there, security issues, etc. Still, way to make it even harder for caregivers to make it to the polls!

Once you get to your polling place, you've got to run the gauntlet of candidates, their family and supporters, and party folk just to get to the door. The Republican and Democratic parties around here both hand out "Sample Ballots" with the boxes checked for their candidates. The whole practice bothers me. It feels like the modern version of pulling the party lever. "Don't bother to think before you get to the polls. Your party will tell you how to vote and all you have to do is be a good sheeple and follow directions." Blech.

Right now, though, I'm especially frustrated by the local Republicans. See, I expected them to have checked the boxes for the General Assembly races. They are, after all, basically required to have a party designation. I'm fine with that. The Republican ballot, though, had the boxes checked for their candidates in the Sheriff's race and the Commissioner of Revenue race. It feels like they're saying, "Don't think! Just Vote Republican!" What does it matter if the Commissioner of Revenue is personally a Republican or Democrat or Green or Libertarian or Independent or Socialist or Whig or Pirate or...? His (or her) job is to oversee the housing assessments and revenue collections, not make policy! He is just supposed to follow the rules set by the State and Local governments. As long as she can manage the accounting and managing, I don't care if she believes in worshiping lichen or will only wear clothes made from yaks' hair. It. Doesn't. Matter. Same goes for sheriff. It's not like a sheriff who happens to be a Democrat is just going to stop enforcing laws, or a Republican sheriff is going to start executing criminals. If you truly believe that a person's party affiliation tells you whether they're an honest or good person, I don't even know what to say. Which is fine because you probably wouldn't listen to me anyway.

Enough ranting. I just had to get that off my chest. Now I need to get some sleep so I'm ready for kiddos at o-dark-thirty. 'Night!