Guess I Should Pay More Attention

June 17, 2005

Apparently there was a primary election here on Tuesday. On the one hand, I probably should have voted. On the other hand, I'm not sure if I've lived here long enough to vote just yet and I have no idea what the candidates' platforms were, or even what their names were. So in this case it's probably best that I skipped the vote. I just need to remember to start paying attention come the fall.

Edit, 10:29 PM: Dave also mentioned over IM that I may not have been able to vote in the primary due to (lack of) party affiliation. Since I didn't recall being asked which party I wanted to register in when I got my license -- in PA they ask as part of the motor-voter program -- I did some digging.

Turns out Virginia's an open-primary state. I would have had to have picked a party verbally when I got to the polling place is all. Not a thought I'm terribly fond of, but it's to prevent people from voting in both primaries -- you have to pick one and stick with it.

Unfortunately Google is more useful in answering this question than virginia.gov is. I haven't been able to find anything on the state government's site to corroborate that blog posting I linked to. But it does fit in with my not being asked for a party affiliation at the DMV.

June 16, 2005June 20, 2005