Imagine my surprise when I gave my driver’s license and after a long wait involving some phone calls I was told that I was not a registered voter.  “That’s impossible!” I said.
“Do you have your registration card?” the lady asked.
“No,” I replied. “Everyone has told me–even your signs say–you only need your driver’s license. What’s going on?”
After some hemming and hawing, a supervisor came over, review the situation and asked me, “Did you vote in the primaries?”
“No.”
“Ah well, there you go, you were probably purged from the voting rolls.”
“WHAT?! So everyone here voted in a part primary? That’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard!”

By this time, this conversation was drawing some attention, so the supervisor lady and I stepped behind this divider where we could talk with a bit more privacy.
“When did you register, then?” she asked.
“When I renewed my license, two years ago in 2006.”
“Oh well THAT explains it. DPS [Department of Public Safety, state troopers + drivers license division] just doesn’t send the information all the time, this happens.”
Now I’m ready to punch a kitten I’m so mad. “WHAT?!?! Now this is DPS’ fault?! ‘They’ are the ones responsible right?  Why doesn’t everyone else have a problem then? Because that’s how most people register.”
“No, most people register through us [county].”  Typical small-minded “my world = everyone else’s universe” thinking.  Like the “motor voter” initiatives were small potatoes, what a laugh. “And besides,” she continued, “if you haven’t voted in the last two years, you’re purged from the rolls anyway.” [this isn't true, it SHOULD be two federal election cycles, not two years]

It was clear I was going to get nowhere with her, or even a phone call to the county voter person because, well, this is about as busy as it’s going to get outside Nov. 4th, and by the time I get through to someone, what are they going to do? I filled out a provisional ballot which may or may not be counted for the general election, depending on the mood of whomever reviews the ’cause’ of my ‘affidavit’ contained therein that in fact, I am eligible to vote.  Great.

We like to think of one person, one vote as if that makes a real difference. Without a tirade on the electoral college, the fact is Texas as a whole is as red as it gets. We’re the home of George W. Bush for crying out loud, as well as other notable figures destined for punishment in the afterlife such as Tom Delay and Phil Gramm. My vote, even in my own county, would probably diluted to the point of irrelevance, but in the end, I wanted to say I was there on this momentous election year, to feel like I was one lever-pull, touch-screen, whatever part of history. Now I won’t even know until after it’s done.

I’m just happy that while my vote may be diluted to irrelevance, hundreds of thousands of others will not. Tonight we will signal a new era in American politics, and come January, we’ll be putting this train back on the tracks. I’m tired of seeing Democrats act like simpering schoolchildren–Pelosi especially–caving to a perceived bully. With Obama in the White House, maybe Congress can not only act on initiatives that I feel are important, but restore some dignity in doing so.

I will watch events unfold today like everyone else, and whether my vote will count or not will not affect the outcome of this historic day.

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