I got my voter registration card in the mail today. When the husband and I got our new license plates and drivers licenses, we both also went ahead and registered to vote. The crazy thing is that I haven’t voted in an election since George W’s first term when I first went to college and voted absentee (’cause the parents set it up for me). I guess that the main reason why I really don’t mess with the whole voting process is because of a pretty basic reason. I’ve always had it stuck in my head that people who vote should be informed as to the candidates and what they stand for and what issues they’re voting on when they pick their candidates. I don’t follow election news, so I’m uninformed, and being uninformed, I have no idea who the people on the ballots are or what they stand for and therefore, I shouldn’t be voting because it’s like shooting a gun around in the dark. Well, OK, I’m sure it’s not quite as bad as shooting a gun around in the dark, but I think you get my point. Voting should be by informed citizens–or at least that’s how I always understood the process–but to be honest, when there are so many positions and levels that we vote on at the same time, it’s kind of hard to know something about every single person unless you spend a ton of time either glued to the TV or internet. I barely have the time to keep up on reading the funnies each week during the week and my weekends are a precious commodity to me to catch up on what I didn’t do during the week and to relax. Reading a bunch of political brouhaha isn’t exactly my idea of relaxing, however. So I stay uninformed in general and then feel like I shouldn’t vote and therefore don’t vote because my vote is a stupidly-made one. Why is this year different? I don’t know; it really isn’t, but the lady at the license branch asked if we wanted to register since we just moved to Jasper, and well, we both felt kind of silly about the idea of saying no, I suppose. I think I’ll just have to spend some time flipping through various websites to see what’s going on so I don’t feel like an idiot voter who’s wasting everyone’s time. Of course, if only the informed voters were voting, I’m sure the numbers of votes would drop dramatically. I kind of understand why there’s the option for just voting all Democrat or all Republican–don’t use your brain, just roll with it.

For what it’s worth, while I don’t know much about the electoral process, I did find this comic at 9 Chickweed Lane to be pretty funny.