I really can't imagine not voting. I've voted in every election since turning 18, including the "off years" and the ones that required getting an absentee ballot. (As a military dependent, I was able to technically remain a Maryland resident when I was stuck Down South.)
On the other hand, it doesn't particularly offend me if someone doesn't vote. If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice, as it were. Still I can't say I understand that particular choice.
Gene Weingarten had a really good piece about that in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine: None of the Above. That and the followup chat are good reading for today, and to round it out, there's an op-ed, too.
UPDATE: Shortly after I posted this, my ex called and asked if I'd voted yet. I figured this was his usual attempt to convince me not to vote, since we cancel each other out anyway. It's just a joke. But actually he was calling to tell me that at his polling site, he was listed as having received an absentee ballot and therefore couldn't vote. Pretty interesting, since he hadn't requested said absentee ballot. He was more than a bit irked, and I don't blame him.
My guess, based solely on knowing someone who knows someone who works for the Board of Elections, is that it was a clerical error. I heard the Board was frantically hiring people during October to process the ballot requests and registrations, so I'm sure there were errors. Probably statistically insignificant errors, but I feel a little bad for my ex. Tonight will be the first time in 16 years that he'll go to sleep on election night without the satisfaction of having countered my liberal choices...
Posted by Nic at November 2, 2004 04:00 PM