Life of Wry

Yesterday, I put my ballot into our so called Ballot Drop Box in front of City Hall. This is the new protocol… well, new-ish for me.

For all of my voting life — some 50 years — I voted in person on voting day. For the last 28 or so years, I walked into the Senior Center across the street to vote. The whole deal… the red-white-blue directional signage leading you to the room, the warnings about not politicking within so many feet of the polls, the chatting up of the election workers, the scanning of the list posted outside indicating who was eligible to vote in this precinct, the photos I’d take of Peter who might accompany me or, later, selfies of important elections (like Obama!)… all of that.

These days, California has shifted to largely mail-only voting. You can vote in person, but it’s not like it used to be with dozens and dozens of polling places all over town. Now, if you are a Davis resident and want to vote in person you have to go to a Voting Center! And there are options for Voting Centers.

:: You can go to the Veterans’ Memorial Center on election day, or for the ten days before that and vote the way you always used to, in a little booth.

:: Or, you can go a location at UCD, one of the junior highs, or one of the elementary schools on election day or three days before that and vote in the little booth.

But most people are signing up for mailed ballots. I’m one of those. These you fill out at home and return by mail.. or you can deliver them in person for an entire month before the election to either the Yolo County Clerk’s office in Woodland (who would do that?) or to Ballot Drop Boxes at two of the Davis Nugget markets (but only for certain hours), or to a 24-hr Ballot Drop Box, of which there are two in Davis, one on campus and one at City Hall. Or — just to add more helpful but undoubtedly confusing options — you can drop your ballot off at an in-person Voting Center (either an 11-day center or a 4-day center).

Got all that?

It used to be so easy.

Now it’s easier — at least there are more options — but more confusing.

Anyway, all of this is to say that after dropping off my ballot yesterday at the 24-hr City Hall Ballot Drop Box (right across the street!), I was very relieved to get not one, but two confirmations that my ballot was in the County Clerk’s hands (so to speak). An email and a text.