I’ve been voting by mail for as long as I can remember.
I’d love to say there was always some deeply thoughtful reason behind it, but in the beginning? Sometimes it was just sheer laziness. I didn’t want to stand in line. I didn’t want to rearrange my day. If someone was willing to mail me a ballot that I could fill out at home and send back, that seemed like the obvious choice.
As I’ve gotten older, though, voting by mail has become less about convenience and more about necessity.
As I’ve progressed in my career, getting away from the office during the workday has become increasingly complicated. The hours have gotten longer, the responsibilities have gotten bigger, and there are plenty of days when simply saying, “Hey, I’m going to disappear for a while so I can go vote,” isn’t quite as simple as it once was.
Then there’s the other thing that has increasingly complicated my schedule:
Travel.
If you’ve spent any amount of time around Maybe A Weekend, you already know that staying home isn’t exactly one of my strongest skills.
As my travel schedule has gotten increasingly ridiculous, there’s always the possibility that I won’t even be home when Election Day rolls around. That makes having my ballot sitting on the kitchen counter weeks beforehand pretty damn useful.
This year made that especially apparent.
I was looking at my calendar and suddenly realized something:
I won’t even be in the country on Election Day.
Apparently Future Garrick scheduled an international adventure and Present Garrick eventually noticed the minor scheduling conflict with democracy.
This is why I put things on calendars.
Thankfully, because I vote by mail, it really isn’t a conflict at all.
My ballot arrives ahead of Election Day. I can sit down at home, take my time, research the candidates and issues I’m unfamiliar with, make my decisions, and return it before I ever head to the airport.
No rushing.
No trying to squeeze voting between meetings.
No wondering how long the line is going to be.
No trying to figure out whether I can make it to a polling location before or after work.
And this year, no trying to figure out how to vote from another country—which sounds like an unnecessarily complicated side quest that I would prefer not to add to the itinerary.
Travel has taught me to plan ahead for a lot of things.
Flights.
Hotels.
Passports.
Transportation.
Currency.
Chargers.
Whether I really need four camera lenses for a three-day trip.
And the increasingly questionable number of cruises appearing on my calendar.
Voting has simply become another thing on that checklist.
Before leaving the country: complete ballot. Return ballot. Locate passport. Get on plane.
Preferably in that order.
Whatever your political beliefs happen to be, voting is one of those responsibilities that requires a little planning when life gets busy. For me, voting by mail has made that considerably easier.
What originally started partly because I didn’t feel like waiting in line has turned into something that fits perfectly with the life I live now.
Work long hours.
Travel whenever possible.
Vote before leaving.
Then get on the plane.
Democracy handled. Adventure resumed.
Before Anyone Turns This Into a Political Debate…
Here at Maybe A Weekend, we’re pretty apolitical.
There’s a reason you normally see posts about cruises, road trips, questionable financial decisions involving airfare, random side quests, photography, cocktails disguised as hydration, and my continuing inability to stay home for an entire weekend.
This is a travel and photography website.
It is not CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, C-SPAN, or whatever political corner of the internet currently has everyone yelling at each other.
I have enough chaos around here already.
I don’t need to add political punditry to the operation.
For those curious, I’m an independent.
That means when I fill out my ballot, I actually have to do the annoying thing and think.
I know.
Exhausting.
I research candidates. I read about the issues. I look at what people have actually done, what they say they want to do, and whether any of it makes sense to me.
Then I apply some rational thought, sprinkle in a little logic, stare suspiciously at the ballot for a while, and make my decision.
Sometimes that decision lands on one side of the political aisle.
Sometimes it lands on the other.
Sometimes I look at the available choices and think, “Seriously? Out of hundreds of millions of people, this is what we came up with?”
Democracy is apparently a little chaotic too.
But I’m not filling in a bubble simply because there’s a particular letter next to someone’s name.
Party loyalty isn’t really my thing.
Neither is telling you what your political beliefs should be.
Your ballot belongs to you.
Mine belongs to me.
And that is probably the healthiest political relationship we can have.
Now It’s Your Turn
No, this isn’t the beginning of Maybe A Weekend becoming a political blog.
Tomorrow we can return to our regularly scheduled programming of me spending entirely too much money to fly somewhere for 48 hours because I found something interesting to photograph.
But I will use my tiny corner of the internet to encourage one thing:
Make a plan to vote.
I don’t care who you vote for.
I don’t care what political party you belong to.
I don’t even care if you look at your ballot and think every option is varying degrees of ridiculous.
Research it anyway.
If voting by mail is available to you and works for your situation, learn how it works where you live. If you prefer early voting, figure out when you can do it. If you enjoy the Election Day experience, put it on your calendar and go do your thing.
Just have a plan.
Because life happens.
Work happens.
Kids happen.
Travel happens.
Meetings run late.
Cars break down.
Flights get booked.
And apparently sometimes you look at your calendar and discover that you scheduled yourself to be on another continent while your country is holding an election.
Whoops.
So research your ballot.
Read about the candidates.
Learn about the issues.
Think for yourself.
Question things.
Make your own decisions.
And then actually cast the damn ballot.
You absolutely do not have to agree with me politically.
We can disagree about candidates, policies, taxes, government spending, ballot initiatives, or whatever else happens to be printed on the thing.
We can still grab a beer afterward.
Hell, disagreeing with each other and still being able to sit down for a drink sounds considerably healthier than whatever the internet has been doing lately.
I just want you to participate.
I’ll take care of my ballot before grabbing my passport and disappearing on another adventure.
You take care of yours however works best for you.
Then we can return to debating the subjects that actually matter around here:
Window seat or aisle?
Carry-on or checked bag?
Cruise or road trip?
And, perhaps the most controversial question ever published on Maybe A Weekend…
Do I really need to book another cruise?
Please.
We all know the answer to that one.
#VoteByMail #MakeAPlanToVote #ElectionDay #TravelLife #MaybeAWeekend
