Disenfranchisement Sucks

I declined to state a party when I registered to vote at my Emeryville address (I guess because I think of American textile/manufacturing workers as no more important that workers in other countries and thus disagree with John Edwards on free trade, but after today, I'll suck it up and join the party.) So they sent me an independent mail-in ballot which had just the state ballot initiatives, which I sent in. Then it sank in that CA Dems let independents vote in their primary. I went by the polling place to see if I could get just the presidential part of the ballot, but it doesn't work like that, so no Baracking the vote for me.

So tomorrow I'll suck it up, join the party, and forget about the permanent absentee status now that I actually live in the state I'm registered in. I can't remember going to a polling place since I was 6 or so years old with my mom, and it felt a lot cooler than slapping a stamp on the absentee thing, even though they didn't let me vote (twice).

So yeh, I'm for Barack Obama. Krugman seems to think Clinton's health care plan is superior, which could very well be the case, but still, he makes me feel a lot better about the future than a return to Clinton-esque stuff like this.

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