violated

[something i should've posted earlier]

i think my voting rights have been violated. were violated a while ago. i sent my absentee ballot application to my elections administrator many many months ago, while i was in eritrea. it must've been around february or march of 2004. i didn't receive a response until the end of may. things began quite grandly, notwithstanding the months late response, before turning into fraudulence....

"Dear Voter: Thank you for choosing to exercise your right to vote..."

there followed sections titled "Know your rights as a voter," "Be careful about assistance," and "Mail your own ballot;" and towards the end of the document i was informed that "election day is May 15." flipping to another page i learned that

"the marked ballot must be received by the early voting clerk no later than 7:00 p.m. on election day...If voting from outside the United States [the marked ballot] must be received not later than 5 days after an election and must be placed in mail no later than 7:00 p.m. on election night" (my italics).

must be placed in the mail no later than 7:00 p.m. on election night--may 15--and this ballot i received at the end of may, nearly two weeks after election night. further implicating my elections administrator, i see (on the postmark dates) that he did not even send the ballot until may 15. how on earth it was supposed to reach eritrea in less than a day, i don't know (and through regular mail no less. no fedex, no express mail). he certainly wasn't taking the 8 hour time difference into account.

so i didn't get to vote on the proposition issuing $450,000,000 of bonds to construct and equip school buildings in the dallas county community college district. and judging by this dismal first performance, i probably won't get to vote on anything else, including bush vs. kerry.

systematic disenfranchisement of international volunteers? do international volunteers tend to vote democrat? do i smell something nasty?

"If you feel that your voting rights have been violated or abused, you may report these incidents to the Secretary of State toll-free at 1-800-252-VOTE(8683)."