Disenchantedfranchised updated

The grand plan last week was to go vote early; record turnout is expected in today's recall election and standing in line is not my favorite activity. Thursday was the target. On Thursday, however, I woke up with a horrible cold. Eh, I'll vote at the polls on Tuesday.

Roll back the clock six weeks to prior to the recall primary. I had dutifully sent my change of address form to the clerk in Greenfield. According to the GAB, that's all I needed to do to change my voting place from West Allis to Greenfield.

Imagine my surprise when I received a phone call from the clerk on the Friday before the primary, telling me my change would not be processed in time, giving me only the option of reregistering (note that is reregistering, not as simple as sending in the change of address). Eh, I'm not about to stand in line twice to vote in a primary that had almost no meaning for me.

Besides, they would have my change of address processed by the time the general recall election rolled around over a month later, right?

Guess again.

According to the GAB website, as of this morning I'm still listed on the voter registration lists as a resident of West Allis. Apparently, Greenfield never processed my change.

This leaves me again with the option of standing in line (twice) to reregister (even though I've been a registered voter for decades) and vote in Greenfield.

Unless, of course, I take my old driver's license (I got a new one with the new address, but the old one has an expiration date of 1/13 - we don't have to surrender them when changing addresses) and go to my old polling place and pretend to still be a resident of that city in order to vote.

It seems fitting, given all the dirty tricks played by the parties calling this recall, that I have to almost commit fraud in order to cast my vote.

The Greenfield city clerk will be hearing from me - in person - later this week.

Well, it figures. Due to another fun situation, I needed to get to my bank before six tonight. The polling place in the old city is a good twenty minutes from my bank during rush hour. The polling place in West Allis is notoriously slow (trees grow faster than the workers move). I left work, thinking I'd hit pre-game tailgater traffic on the freeway (Brewers vs. Cubs tonight), then a crowd at the library. I would have to leave the library by quarter after five or very shortly afterward to insure I made it to the bank.


To my great delight, the freeway was clear. The entire curbside in front of the library was empty of cars. There was no one else - not a single soul - in line, or even inside, the room where voting was taking place. Total time to vote: under one minute.


I'm taking this as a positive sign for the results tonight.