Does it count? #MFRWAuthor

Welcome to Week 32 of the MFRW 52-week challenge. The topic is "Do You Vote?" 

First, please don't blast, troll, or denigrate me for this post. Let me say I have never been a member of any political party. That is until the state I lived in arbitrarily divided all registered votes without a party affiliation into a one of two political parties. If you didn't like the one they assigned, you could go down to the Boro Hall and request be put in the other one. So technically even though I was in XXX party, I was not a card carrying, issue supporter of the group.

While I never fully believed in the value of a single vote in state or national elections (small fish, big pond,) for most of my adult life I did vote. Maybe not in a particular national primary, but I made sure to trudge down to the firehouse for the town, county, state, and specialty elections. 

I even continued to do so even though every few months green postcards summoning me to town X for pettit or grand jury started arriving in my mailbox. Now some info, the zip code I lived in straddled two counties. And the one I was not a resident of kept ordering me to appear for jury duty. Which meant I had to drop everything, gather up proof of ineligibility and pay postage to submit it. Then there was the stress of waiting. Did some clerk who couldn't read English just rubber stamp "EXCUSE REJECTED" or did I get a judge on a bad day who rejected the appeal.

Then there was the day a pink card came to report to the state capital. Now, a family member had just completed that public service. He drove the hour (each way), several days a week for six months. He was retired. Me? If I didn't work, I didn't get paid. I also had no car at the time and no direct public transportation. Of course, I could spend $30 a day to take two trains to the hub in the next state, then switch to Amtrack to go to the state capital. Altogether the trip was at least two hours plus each way. When I requested a hardship exclusion, the clerk told me to "take a taxi."  That was more than $100 each way.

Those of you who follow my blog for a while know I am a full-time caregiver. In response to one letter requesting a hardship release from the civic duty, I was told to have a family member drive 1200 miles to be available to cover my responsibilities. Or to leave the person being cared for alone all day. After all, the person is an adult, and everyone over the age of 15 has to be able to care for themselves.

As to whether or not I still believe whether a single vote counts or not? Several years ago, an elderly man well known for his civic service died. The next local election ended in a hung vote. Multiple recounts all came in with the same result. Neither candidate had even a single vote more. The saying around town during the resultant campaign and run-off was that if XXX was still alive there wouldn't be a run-off. His vote would have put one of them over the top.

Now you may ask why I am talking jury summonses when the topic is voting and as to why I no longer do so. Depending on the jurisdiction, being on the voter list puts you at the top of the jury selection queue. In my old state I have another decade to go before exemption based on age can be requested. In my new one? No such exemption exists.

Someday when my caregiving has ended I will again join the ranks of those able to speak their voice. Until then, I have others to express my opinion and protect my interests.


~till next time, Helen