Please Note: My personal journal is now fully independent of my main personal Web site, but I am still working on some things such as my new page designs and many improvements to PageDrive, my software that runs my journal site. If you encounter any technical problems, please either just try again a while later or let me know.
Unfortunately, I know very little about presidential primaries in California or elsewhere and I only learned that California voters would be voting today within the past couple days or so. Having received no detailed information about any of the propositions and having not been aware enough of them to seek out such information far enough in advance to properly review it and decide my positions, I find myself horribly unprepared for an election day that I did not even realize was approaching even as this month began—literally unable to cast informed votes.
Perhaps worse, I am not even sure if I am able to vote because having received no information about any presidential candidates or propositions, I suspect that I am still either registered to vote with the address of a previous residence or not at all. I am not sure how that works.
Some part of me thinks it doesn't matter whether I vote or not because my voice will not really be heard and my vote will not really count—that nobody really cares what I think because I am financially poor, I do not belong to any political party let alone one of the two dominant parties, and I do not belong to any special interest group—but part of me wants to participate in our state and federal democracies whenever I can and to whatever extent that I can regardless of the outcome for the principle of it. Participatory government requires participation and if the only people who participate are other people pursuing other interests then only those people and their interests seem likely to be served.
I am very disappointed today. I hope I can resolve my voter registration status and become well-informed about the presidential candidates, any new propositions, and any significant relevant issues well in advance of the general election in November.
