Having a Vote

Today is election day in the U.S. And this election is one of the most contentious in history. The subject for today's post isn't about the candidates or my views, though. It's about how different it was voting here in my newly adopted home. 

I know things are different this election year. That some places have voting booths with punch-card systems and others have written ballots. Some places mailed out ballots and allowed early voting while others made you wait until election day. 

Well here in Aspen/Pitkin County they had what I think is a perfected system. They mailed out ballots over two weeks in advance. And you could mail them in, or in my case I could take the 5-6 minutes to walk to the voting office and put it in the designated box myself in person. 

Yet I ran into a glitch. I went online (another service provided by my new, wonderful home town) and found out that my vote had been rejected. Eeep! I went to the voting office again and talked with someone there and found out that it was because they needed to get verification that I did, indeed, live here. I wasn't just visiting. Thankfully, it was straightened out and not only does it say online that my vote was accepted, I also got a text message confirming as well.

How great is that?