Background

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

PATRIOTIC DUTY

I know that it might sound mawkish, but I believe it is my patriotic duty to vote. As a member of the minority party in our county, I feel especially compelled to vote in the primaries. Please vote in the May 6, 2014, Primary.

Why is it so difficult to get people to vote? I think it's astounding that the most frequent excuse that I hear is that people don't want to be called for jury duty.

When I began voting, the age requirement was 21. When I presented myself to vote at the Primary of my first voting year, I was 20 years old. Of course, one must provide proof of birth and when I gave my birthdate as July 19, I was told by the poll worker I could NOT vote. Being quite aware of the law I told the worker I most certainly could vote because I would be 21 before the General Election. It was unbelievable to me that the poll worker had to confer with others before allowing me to vote.

I have never missed an election. One time, when I was out of state; I had to vote by absentee ballot; another time I arrived at the polling place at 7:20 PM because we'd had an emergency at work. I exceeded the speed limit on Route 38 and was stopped by a Sheriff's Deputy and he actually let me go with a warning.

It seems the only time there's a big turnout is to defeat levies. At our last General Election, the vote in Fayette County was 24.3% of the registered voters; in our last Primary the percentage was 21%. That is shameful.

My husband and I have no children, but we have always supported school levies.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I know how lonely we are as Democrats in this County but I know a lot of people have told me the same thing about not voting because of jury duty. I've never been called one time and I've been voting almost as long as you. Do you know a lot of people think the jury notice is from your driver's license? ML