I used to love voting. Being part of the democratic process is something I get excited about. Not any more.
All of the ballots in Washington state now are by mail. No more polling booth.
I hate this.
The process of voting now is…. unenjoyable. I feel removed from the process.
With our busy life, getting the ballots too early means they will simply get lost. You don’t want to vote too early without learning what you can about the issues and candidates.
And then there is the issue of finding a place to return the ballot.
I could drive down to Ballard and place the ballots in the collection box there. The problem with this method is Ballard isn’t technically far away, but is inconvenient if I am not going to that neighborhood. It is a shame this is the closest place to drop off the ballot.
Alternately I could slap a stamp on the envelope and mail it in. There are two issues I have with this. One is that it should never cost the voter to vote. The second is that if I do have to mail it in, I should be able to place several ballots in the same envelope. Because of “security” each ballot has to have their own (double) envelope and stamp.
I would rather vote online.