The Die is Cast

Saturday morning, while the Feared Redhead was at work and before it was time to get ready to head to Portland for a family visit, I spent an hour or two at the local GOP offices, doing volunteer work as a phone caller. We were calling people who had already indicated suuport for the President. It was a pretty straightforward series of questions and reminders relating to Oregon's Vote-by-mail system: Have you received your ballot? If not, you need to go to the elections office and vote there. If so, have you voted yet? If not, it's too late to mail the ballot, you need to drop it off at a county-approved election drop location. If so, we hope you support the President.

One of the issues that our FAQ sheet addressed is people who respond, "I already voted, why are you still calling?" We were to explain to the person that our calling list is based on the most recent available information from the elections office, and that if we're still on their list, they may want to call and make sure their ballot has been received. I thought this was good information, and a great way to turn what could be an annoying call into a useful call for the people we call.

So Sunday night upon returning home, I checked our messages, and sure enough, 2 of the 4 messages were from the GOP. This despite the fact that we dropped our ballots off at a drop box this time last week. I'm sure you can guess what my first order of business was on my lunch break today.

Thankfully, the nice lady at the Elections office confirmed receipt of our ballots. and by nice, I mean nice. It's been my experience that for the most part, the people at the elections office are the nicest, most helpful government officials with whom I've ever dealt. I wonder if it has to do with appreciating the importance of performing this particular civic duty. Just a thought.

So anyway, our ballots are in. So all you Eugene-area liberals who have been harassing us, do your damnedest. It's too late now to change my vote -- as if you ever could have.