Way back in 1986 there wasn't anything anything like early voting in Colorado, other than an absentee ballot. And since I wasn't going any where in 1986 I didn't think I'd need to vote by absentee ballot.
And I was WRONG! :-)
Up until that time I had prided myself with only missing one election since I became of age to vote. It was a local election for Denver mayor, and I was out of state attending school. But that was the ONLY election I missed.
I remember voting for the first time, how it seemed every precinct worker was a retired person who had watched me grow up. They not only congratulated me for voting, but also did the whole "oh, look you've grown up. I remember when you [insert embarrassing tale of your childhood that you wish everyone would just as soon forget]."
I spent most of 1986 pregnant with my second child, my oldest son.
The due date was all over the map from sometime in October, to mid November. They finally settled on a date toward the middle of November. And I went on working, taking care of my family, and not thinking about that important date in November, well both of them.
Throughout the pregnancy I had Braxton Hicks Contractions. Some so strong they'd knock the wind out of me.
Braxton Hicks contractions, also known as false labor or practice contractions, are sporadic uterine contractions that sometimes start around six weeks into a pregnancy. However, they are not usually felt until the second trimester or third trimester of pregnancy.[1]
Then in September I started into labor. Well before the due date, my doctors shut the whole thing down and put me on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. We lived in a basement apartment at the time and it drove me nuts. All I got to see out of the windows were dog ankles. And once I staged a break out.
Things were kind of precarious with me. The OB nurse that Kaiser sent to visit and check on me twice a week once sent me into labor. I knew that once I was within a few weeks of the due date they'd let me out.
I had done this same routine while carrying my daughter. It didn't occur to me that I wouldn't be able to vote because I knew that I would be free by the beginning of November. In 1986 election date was November 4th.
The night of November 3rd as I lay in bed reading a story to my daughter something didn't feel right. My then husband took our daughter to my parents as I got ready to go to the hospital.
Once there we learned that the sac containing amniotic fluid had ripped. This was now an infection hazard, and I was admitted. I was told that if I didn't start into labor on my own I would be induced in the morning.
Having heard this exact same thing 2 years earlier I told my husband to go home and get some sleep. Because this is inexactly what happened with my daughter.
I didn't go into labor. And now it was election day, Nov 4.
I begged and pleaded with the doctors to let me go vote before we started the process. I wanted to vote, and I knew I wasn't going to go into labor before they induced me. And really if everything held true to the script of my daughter's birth, I wasn't going to go into labor for many hours after induction. Oh it would start well enough, but it would shut down.
Please just let me go vote.
It wasn't a presidential election, but still just as important.
Just please let me go vote! I'll just go 6 miles to my polling place, vote, and be right back. Lookeee here, on a Denver map, it's almost a straight shot from the hospital to my polling place. And look right next door to my polling place is a hospital. If something happens they'll be right there.
LET ME GO VOTE,
Paaaaalllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Nothing doing, they wouldn't let me leave.
My son was born at 1:30 in the afternoon on election day. And everything went just as I said it would, just as it had with my daughter.
My people, Gary Hart and Pat Schroeder were re-elected without me. I don't remember the other races or the ballot measure outcomes.
But I do remember that I couldn't vote.
We didn't have early voting back in the day. If you have it in your state PLEASE use it.
You never know what can happen. Your car could bite the dust Nov. 5, you could be rushed to the hospital with an appendicitis, you might be kidnapped by aliens who place your head on a chihuahua's body (and you can't vote like that), or you might go into labor. ;-)
You never know what can happen.
If you can vote early, DO, and encourage others to, too.