Breeze Perspectives: Why didn’t my vote count?
Red-tape disenfranchisement of students
By Travis Clark, contributing writer
Posted on November 13, 2006

Now that the election frenzy is over, it’s time to reflect on the process. It was good to see that Americans actually somewhat care about our country and voted. Especially at a college age, it’s important to realize what voting is trying to accomplish. However, another obstacle that most of us face here at school is that we don’t live close to home. Home is where we can vote. This creates a need for an absentee ballot, which, after my experience this year, could be reworked.

For me, I was distraught at the absentee ballot process. As a resident of Pennsylvania, home is a four-hour drive. It wouldn’t be very logical to drive all the way to a place to vote and then return. So I went to the voting registration Web site, found out where to send information, and sent in the necessary paperwork a solid week before the deadline. The deadline in Pennsylvania was Oct. 31. However, I waited around and never got anything until Nov. 5. Having only voted once before, I was excited to get another chance to have a say in our state’s governor and Senate races. I began to follow the instructions carefully, making sure to do nothing that would make my ballot invalid. At the top of the page I read this headline, which killed my excitement: “Ballot must be received by Friday prior to election at 5 p.m.”

I was confused. Does this mean the ballot had no shot of being considered? I had gone from an excited American exercising a basic right to vote, to confused and puzzled. What had I done wrong? The deadline for absentee applications had clearly been stated as Oct. 31; I had thought to mail in my application in plenty of time. But everything showed that it was no longer a possibility. There was no possible way, even if I had left that moment and driven to the voting precinct, to get that ballot there by 5 p.m.

I was not the only one to experience difficulty with an absentee ballot. A few of my housemates e-mailed and mailed in applications and didn’t receive anything; not even a phone call or an explanation from their local election commissions as to why they would not receive a ballot.

So should we rework our election process? Should we investigate or look to create a new system, or a new method to allow voters easy access to vote in an election? This voting neglect does not increase my faith in our government. I feel as though my right to vote has been taken away from me; and even then, how much do absentee ballots even count (if the election isn’t close)? It’s a shame that after a system that has been in place for more than two hundred years, we still struggle to get basic things right.

Who is to blame in this case? I have already lodged a complaint with the Chester County voters’ service back at home. This is such a basic and simple problem. If the postal service can’t mail the ballot to me fast enough, the deadline should be changed. I would have gotten my application into the proper authorities with plenty of time had I known that this would have been a problem. Moving the deadline up to Oct. 24 would have been simple enough. We as Americans should not have to be concerned about having our right to vote taken away. This experience has left my American pride hurt; however, seeing that people were there voting and truly caring reinforced my faith in our citizens, despite not being able to join them.

Travis Clark is a senior English major.