An interesting thing happens when you live on the road – you have no permanent address that allows you to register to vote.
For the first time in many years, I am not able to vote in this election. I have a mail service in the State of Washington and the Voters Registration Board does not look at that as a permanent residence, so they have canceled my voter’s registration.
I haven’t always been a voter. I first registered to vote as an 18-year-old, the first year that 18-year-olds were allowed to vote. I really registered to vote so I could sign the petition to legalize marijuana in the State of California. Now that a measure is back on the ballot to legalize personal use of pot, I have been in a state of depression that I have not been able to vote in California in this election. Forty years after the first measure to legalize and I’m not registered to vote!
When I registered in 1970, I just wanted to sign that petition; it was many years before I actually felt like I could participate as a voter. I had registered as a non-partisan which meant that I couldn’t vote in the primaries but I also didn’t exercise my right to vote in the general elections. It was my own personal little protest as a non-partisan that nobody but me knew anything about – what kind of protest is that!?
I am determined to find myself a way to have a permanent residential address….if for no other reason that to register to vote in the next election.