Last week my absentee ballot arrived in the mail. Voting is something I've always taken seriously: I've voted every time I've been able to since I was 18 and I've always been fairly well educated about the candidates and everything else that's on the ballot. This time is different. I got my ballot and realized I have no idea who I'm voting for--all I know is who I'm not voting for.
When I voted by absentee ballot last fall, I already knew the issues pretty well before I left Maine and kept up with everything on the internet while at school in North Carolina. Of course, this year my access to the internet has been very limited. Since my computer is still broken, my internet access will continue to be restricted to when I can go to an internet cafe with a community member's computer or to 17 minute time slots at the library. Perhaps I could devote 17 minutes to each candidate and if they don't win me over in that 17 minutes, they don't get my vote.
I wonder, who will do the most for the poor? for the disabled? women? children? education? the environment? all the other things I care about? I wonder if I can find out the answers in 17 minutes. I doubt it, and if I do I'm afraid I might not like the answers I get.
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