The vote

The phone rings and the caller asks for the Dragon. I say that she’s not home and he tells me he’s calling all absentee ballot voters on behalf of a local candidate.

I resist several urges. One is to tell him that he’s mispronouncing the name of the candidate he’s representing. I happen to know her well and wouldn’t vote for her at gunpoint. I also don’t ask him why he’s calling for the Dragon if she’s voting absentee…doesn’t absentee mean “absent?” Guess not.

I simply give the polite answer that she’s away at grad school and is a responsible adult who will have returned her ballot. He murmurs that this is nice and goes away.

Of course she’s voted. In June, on a visit home, she stopped by the township office to find out why they wouldn’t send an absentee ballot. She found she was no longer registered at her legal address, and surmised that securing a license in Alaska must have knocked her out of Michigan. The clerk at the window made noises that it was too late to get an absentee ballot, but the clerk at the computer pulled up the Dragon’s voting record. “Oh, heavens,” she said. “Give her a ballot. She’s voted in more elections in the last nine years than I have.” Ballot secured.

These were the same clerks who sent our absentee ballots to China for the August primary.

Voting is important in this house.

The Driver hand carried her absentee ballot home from China and had me drop it at the township building since she headed out of town on Sunday. The Dreamer traded off kids with a friend today so they both could go vote. The young women of the applesauce brigade voted before they came to work. Juggling schedules, everyone in the house voted in some way, shape, or form.

At least two of us collected the free cup of coffee at Starbucks. Voting has some perks.