Primary Woes

I've been a sporadic voter throughout my life. I didn't vote in the first election for which I was old enough, definitely in the throes of teen angsty crap. I voted in some non-presidential elections, but then didn't in the presidential election of 2000, because living in Virginia at the time, it seemed abundantly clear my vote "didn't matter." (But if you lived in Florida that year? Hoo boy!)

But since then I've started to come into a sense of civic-mindedness, that I should vote always anyway "because it does matter," "because you give up the right to complain if you don't vote," whatever, blah-blah. The point is, these days, I try to vote.

Why bring all this up? Well, because a primary election is coming up here. There are really only two compelling reasons I can think of to register officially with a specific political party when you register to vote. One is to cut down on junk mail, because candidates and causes of the other party generally won't waste their time mailing you anything. The other reason is exactly this case: so you can vote in the primary. So that you can say something like "I don't want to vote for 'the other guy,' but I certainly don't like what 'my guy' has been doing either, so let me try and get a new 'my guy.'" Okay, that's a general theory, because when I vote, I do research the issues and candidates to the best of my ability, and I don't blindly vote down the party line. But you get the point.

So here's the problem. I got my mail-in ballot for this primary election. It features around 10 government seats to cast a vote for, at both state and federal levels. And in every instance but one, there is only a single candidate to vote for. There really is no point in voting for any of these people, since they'll move on from this primary whether I affix my 61 cents in postage to this ballot or not.

Now there's pressure being applied to the pleasant little bubble that I'm a civic-minded person. Do I mail in this ballot to cast a vote for this one thing? Does it even matter? Do I lose any and all credibility complaining about people who don't vote if I don't vote in this?

Damn.