I can not tell you how excited I am to vote today. I feel like a little kid in a candy store. I think this is the first election where I haven’t cast my ballot either early through an absentee ballot or early voting or voted first thing in the morning. I decided to avoid the long lines that tend to form in the morning before work I would head home over lunch and cast my ballot. I probably could have voted this morning though as I drove by my polling place this morning on my way to work and sadly there was no evidence of any sort of line. I guess I should have known given that I voted about 45 minutes before the polls closed during the primary and they told me I was only the 27th person in my precinct to vote that day. I generally love my neighborhood, but this makes me sad. The place where I voted at my old apartment in Baltimore on the other hand always had a line no matter what, so at least some people in Baltimore care. I guess the good thing about waiting until this afternoon is that I get to prolong my excitement. I can hardly wait until lunch time.

There are a number of questions on the Maryland ballot that I do feel strongly about, and most of them are neck and neck. I know my vote will count for those issues. Living in  Maryland  and more specifically Baltimore it doesn’t much matter who I vote for in regards to the presidential race or Congress. I live in a state and city that are going to go Democrat. That doesn’t matter though. It is still my right and duty to make my voice heard through my vote. For a long time in this country I as a woman did not have the right to vote. There are people who fought long and hard to change that. There are also many people whose countries don’t allow them vote or even have elections. Voting is a right and privilege we have in this country and everyone should exercise it.

We live in a country where you have a say in how your government works. I think I’m going to institute a new rule. If you start complaining about the government I’m going to ask you if you voted in the last election. If you say yes, then you may proceed with your complaints. If you say no, then you will need to keep your mouth shut until you cast a ballot in an election.

I know a lot of people who will be voting like I do today and a lot of people who won’t. Whether or not we share the same beliefs I hope you go out and make your voice heard. My friend Billy, who I guarantee is voting almost the exact opposite of me, wrote something on his blog last week that I think does a very good job of explaining why. Go vote today, and if for some reason you can’t vote because you failed to register in time then spend the time you would have spent voting filling out your voter registration for the next election.