I planned to vote yesterday. There were a couple ballot measures (“S” to restrict development and “H” to add a 0.25% local sales tax for homeless relief) that I wanted to vote for. And I remembered during the day, even as a couple events were totally screwing with my plan. At 5 p.m., for example, we had a power outage that lasted until midnight. (Polls closed at 8 p.m. but my polling station is within reasonable walking distance.) The USB cord I use to charge my phone and tablet shorted out earlier in the day, necessitating an unplanned trip to Target to get new cord.
I had received tons of hard-copy mailers in the weeks preceding, emails from Mayor Eric Garcetti and my City Councilperson Mike Bonin. I even looked at those emails on election day but they failed to register in my brain as requiring action. After the power outage, it quickly grew dark outside and my phone, laptop and tablet each slowly went dark for lack of recharging. So there were a few extenuating circumstances.
But the long and short is that I simply forgot. I’ve learned my lesson. From now on, I will be putting these electon dates on my calendar so that I get reminder notiications. I’m confident it won’t happen again, but I still feel badly that I forgot. I feel like I let down my fellow Angelenos.