What is probably not very surprising to any of my readers who know about my planning tendencies, I’ve known what I wanted to do for my election day eve post since early this year. I am firm by my pledge to keep my blog a-political, so what could be better than fictional elections?
At the moment, my favorite movie that deals with an election is Brewster’s Millions.
There is just something about his “None of the Above” campaign that resonates with me this year.
My well-planned-out post also included discussion of Election and The American President. But then… I found out something that really disturbed me:
You know how in school growing up they warned you to behave or it will go down in your permanent record (I’m I the only one thinking of Kiss Off by Violent Femmes?), well I had thought that that was all just a means of crowd control in school, one that I firmly bought into. I discovered last week that it does exist, at least in regards to voting.
I knew from my parents that the best part of our electoral system is the fact that it is secret. I extrapolated from that, that my voting record was also private. WRONG! Okay, so no one knows who I voted for (at least I hope not!), but my perfect voting record is available to anyone who takes the time to go down to the county court house in all the counties in which I’ve voted.
I don’t know why this is so bothersome to me. Maybe because it took 41 years for me to figure it out. Maybe because it feels like violation of my privacy.
Of course there is no way I will ever let this affect my decision to vote. I want my voice heard using the one method that officially counts. [READERS: I love that you want to hear my voice more often than the polling stations!]
Am I the only one who didn’t know that voting frequency is public record? Did you work hard to keep your “permanent record” clear of bad things? or What is your favorite election-related movie?
Grown Up, Now What? 