Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Voting Debacle.

I woke up this morning with a raging head cold (AGAIN!?!?) and I am now high as a kite on Sudafed.

Currently, my car is not registered or inspected. Last Thursday, I was sitting in a hotel room far away, in someone else's suit, trying to figure out how I was going to let American Airlines know that not only had I still not received my luggage, but that they had dropped off someone else's luggage, which was impossible to rectify because they only give you an automated number of a computer voice telling you where your luggage is, and my cell phone was about to die, because the charger was in my luggage.

At that time, I received a phone call in regards to a problem with my car registration from many states away. I did not take the call for the aforementioned reasons. Well, yesterday I called, and found out that I have an outstanding parking ticket. So they won't mail my registration. I assured them that I had taken care of the ticket. Turns out, I paid the $65 out of state ticket, but I had an in-state parking ticket (only $20) outstanding. Rats. The woman at City Hall gets all worried and frantic, advising me that my tags had expired and I need to be there because I'm now driving illegally. I tell her that I cannot get there, because I am out of state.

Today, I decided to leave work early (after just taking two days off, and having to take off 4 more days in the next two weeks) so I could head back home, vote, take care of the ticket, register and inspect my car. But oh! City Hall is closed because it is Election Day. And my mechanic said that he cannot inspect my car without a legal registration. He was very adamant as well that I should hope I don't get pulled over, because I'm driving illegally.

Now this starts to ring a bell - and from my legal research here at the DA's office, I know that if I were to get pulled over for driving an unregistered car, the least of my problems would be the fact that they would impound my car. Then I started freaking out - I had left work early, I couldn't do ANYTHING about my car, and I had no way to get home to vote. Do I drive home, risking arrest and the loss of my car, just to vote in my swing state? Or do I stay home for the afternoon, doing nothing but stew over the fact that I did not cast a vote in the election in my swing state because I paid the wrong parking ticket and I hate the people at City Hall?

Luckily, a dear friend of mine is heading up there this afternoon to vote and has kindly agreed to allow me to go with him.

Whew.

Next entry: What problems arise from trying to cast my vote. (I'm looking forward to seeing what else could possibly go wrong. Stay tuned.)

Vote Someone Else for President.

Dahlia's HILARIOUS article on how to File Your Own Election Lawsuit.

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