"Private Berry has voted."

Heard a story on KCBS that made me oddly depressed. Seems that vote by mail (what used to be called absentee ballots) has become so popular here in the Valley of Silicon that dozens, if not hundreds, of polling places will be closed due to a lack of need.

kshandra registered for permanent vote by mail a few years back, but I've been a hold out. I like going to the polls. I like the ritual, the booths, turning your vote over to the little old lady or man and getting your sticker (and at the firehouse we voted at in San Francisco, cookies!) I love the personal touch of getting out and adding my one voice to the tidal wave that sets our government's course.

This has a lot to do with my first experience as a voter. I was still in Infantry OSUT in the fall of 1984, but the Army went to great lengths to get us registered, got us out absentee ballots for the proper county, and one Sunday afternoon in mid-October we were all herded into a classroom set up with privacy screens so we could fill out the ballots. volunteers from Columbus' city college and Chamber of Commerce were on hand to help us, if needed. Other than the omnipresent photo of Reagan in the room, there was no coercion to vote any particular way. After every one was done, we lined up in our usual company formation, and handed over our sealed ballots to an election official and a USPS employee. As we did this, we were checked off a list, and the official would announce "Private so and so has voted."

When my turn came, and I heard those words, it gave me a thrill that's hard to describe. I had voted! Admittedly, my vote that year was like spitting into a hurricane, but I had voted! Ever since then, I've had this fetish for free elections. I cheered South Africa finally allowed free and open elections, was thrilled with seeing Czechoslovakia decide, by vote, to split, and even the elections in Iraq have pleased me.

So I'll fill out the ballot, and mail it in, but it's just not the same, y'know?