I voted!!

And here is my sticker to prove it.



Here is a surprising fact...

Even though I am not afraid to express my opinion and I highly advocate excercising your vote whenever possible, I have never voted. Ok, so I did call a couple of times to vote on American Idol this season, but never for government posts.

Now, I registered to vote in Puerto Rico at 17. I eagerly looked forward to my first election in 2000, but I was in the U.S. and somehow missed my opportunity to vote by absentee ballot. Most people will brush that off saying ah.. those don't really even get counted, but there is a LARGE number of absentee ballots casted on any one PR election.

Then in 2004, I had achieved my most prized qualification. I was able to vote in the U.S. election (PR is part of the U.S. but we do not vote for the President or have any senators). But, ironically, a trip with my International Affairs class put me out of town for the election and somewhere along the lines of studying and planning projects, I missed the deadline for submitting my absentee ballot.

This year's primary.... that was going to be it. But then, the DMV stepped in to make my life miserable one more time and they lost my voter registration and I was not able to be registered on time to vote. Around April, when I had to renew my license, they seem to have hired someone with nonzero IQ at the DMV. I know the IQ was non-zero because I renewed via computer and many of them cannot really properly operate one (I have had to assist in the past, and I have had to sit through system down situations, so believe me I KNOW). I got registered to vote and my card came in the mail to the surprise of both me and my husband.

So, first chance I got, I voted. July 15th at 27 (a whole 10+ years since I first set out to be a voting citizen). I will not tell you who I voted for, but if you ever catch me in person, I will explain lots of fun stuff about how we chose.

And so we put an end to this little embarrassing part of my life.

FAQ:
1. What do you think of the sticker?
There is an 80% turn out for voting in PR, so we don't get stickers back home. The first time I saw these people with peach stickers I had to resist laughing.
2. Did you wear your sticker?
We voted at night time so I had no place to wear it to. Well, there was the grocery store, but I just carried it proudly in my hand through out there.
3. Man, I sense some bad vibe with the DMV, what is that all about?
The extense space occupied by the "intertubes" is not big enough to explain my gripes about the DMV. Maybe one day I will post some stories, but basically going to the DMV sucks. Whenever I walk through the door they immediately associate a number of adjectives to my person which do not belong and treat me like a second class citizen.
4. Are you sure it is not just about the fact that they ask about your weight?
No, if anything it is about how fat they make me look in the picture, but it is about neither of those.
5. Do you need a voter's registration card to vote?
No, just your driver's license. However, when the DMV refuses to get a grip on the inner workings of hispanic last names... you might need a smallish army of identifications unless you register through them.
6. Absentee ballots count in PR elections?
Yep, although usually the tie breaker votes are amongst the people in jail and prison. They also have Air Conditioning and Cable TV.
7. Wow, that is a good picture of your hand lines. I have nothing to do, can I read your hand and tell you the future?
No, but I hear the DMV is hiring. Let me know if you take the job, because I will then be able to read YOUR future.