I wrote my last diary almost 14 months ago, in November of 2012. It was election day. I wrote a diary about PA Voter Intimidation based on my experience at my polling place. I actually made the Rec List, which really surprised me. So here we are 14 months later, and I'm happy to finally write another diary about how that's not going to happen again for a while at my polling station.
I'd like to say this was all a grand plan that was hatched as soon as I had the awful experience during the presidential election. That would be lie. I really hadn't thought about the voter ID law since that day. We had a primary election last Spring, and there was no sign of anyone looking for IDs. We had another election in November, and again no sign of the ID police. 2014 brings us congressional races and possibly a new Governor, so I'm betting the recent trend is about to end.
I was going through the ballot in November, and I noticed that Inspector Of Elections had no one running on either side of the ballot. I wrote myself in. I came home after voting to watch the kids while my wife went to vote. I told her to write me in. My hope was that two votes would get my name in the paper because I got a small percentage of the vote.
I eagerly looked in the paper the next day, but as always when I write myself in, my name was nowhere to be found. The race was so local (it's only for my district, within my township) that the race wasn't even listed with a winner. So off I went to work on Wednesday morning somewhat disappointed, but with a plan for a few more people to write me in for something next year.
I had forgotten about it by Thursday. A few weeks later, however, I recieved a letter in the mail from my county. It said that there would be a casting of lots that afternoon (no idea why it took that long to notify me) because there was a tie in the race for my district's race for Inspector Of Elections. It said I could either attend in person (which I couldn't since it was going to happen less than an hour after I opened the letter), or someone would be there on behalf to complete the process. It said the winner would be notified following the process.
A few more weeks went by and I finally got another letter from the county elections office. I won. I actually won elected office with 2 votes and a tie-breaker. So I got my first elected office, and it's oddly a position where I can make a difference about something I complained about 14 months ago. I'll have the position for 4 years. I'm thinking of having an inaugural ball and then starting my re-election campaign.
Happy New Year!