I’ve had some serious play time with the idea of whether or not I was going to vote this year. Living away from home certainly puts one out of touch with the daily hubbub of thoughts and feelings of one’s countrymen, which is a huge engine driving most voters to the polls on election day. Reading the online newspapers simply doesn’t have the same role as listening to or participating in the local discourse. After looking at the government websites and all of the rules and regulations, I was quite put off. What category did I fit into? Do I actually need a notary? How do I find one in China? Do Chinese even know what a notary is (and would I have to travel all the way to the consulate in Shenyang—an overnight train ride—to get one? How do I find the consulate once I get there)? How much paperwork is involved? What about deadlines? I’d just missed the state primary and couldn’t find any info on upcoming voting procedures. What if I don’t fill out the paperwork properly and follow all the rules? Will they send me info and tell me what to do? What if I make a mistake?
In addition, there is the problem of residence. I am registered to vote in Narragansett, but I haven’t lived there in three years. In addition, the address that is on my registration no longer belongs to my mother (or anyone I even know for that matter). Would I still be allowed to use it? What do I do if I’m rejected? What if the people living at my old address find out and complain?
With much trepidation, I went and did it anyway. I copied, printed and filled what turned out to be a single piece of paper. Using my passport as my ID, I sent it off to the town hall in Narragansett (the big hassle here was trying to get the form centered properly onto the standard Chinese A4 size paper and the address template properly centered onto a Chinese envelope). Then I waited.
For four and a half months.
Finally, I received a very flat envelope from Ralph Mollis in the Elections & Civics Division of the Office of the Secretary of State of Rhode Island. For an average lazy American who usually takes the voting process as a matter of dry course, and for someone who normally has little to say about politics in general, you can’t imagine the very unexpected surge of civic pride that welled up in this woman! With trembling hands, I tore open the envelope to gaze upon the state primary ballot for the local elections. I was in!!!!!!!
I was so excited that I could barely touch the pages! They gleamed and glowed whitely on my kitchen table for almost a week. Chinese visitors gazed upon them in awe and wonder as I explained who the people were and how the process worked. On August 8, I sat cross-legged on my sofa and voted as I watched the live coverage of George Bush (loved by some, reviled by some, yet always himself regardless) shaking hands with Hu Jintao at the International Luncheon at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. I then folded my ballot, sealed it in the envelope provided, sealed it further in the outer envelope that was also provided, and sealed it again in a Chinese envelope so it would leave the country properly (a thrice-sealed ballot!). Then I walked through the sauna that is China to the post office. I watched as the postmistress banged 15.60 RMB’s worth of stamps over the sealed edge and placed it in the travel bin, ready for it’s journey back around the world.
