Democracy from abroad

Happy Election Day!

I would like to proudly announce that my ballot is officially in the mail, and I’m looking forward to discovering how things unfold tonight on the news. Voting from here proved to be a lot more challenging than I expected. My absentee ballot (which was sent from King County several weeks ago) never arrived, and (due to the unreliable mail system of Colombia) I was sure it wouldn’t come until far after the election—if ever! Therefore, I made a few phone calls and was sent an email ballot on Friday. I thought that I could simply fill it out, attach a signature from the “paint” program, and send it back... but no, no that was definitely NOT allowed! It had to be sent through the hit-and-miss Colombian snail mail.

My first step was printing the ballot on 8.5” by 14” paper, which I had to convert to centimeters (21.59cm by 35.56cm). I then had to walk to three different Internet Cafes to find one that was capable of printing on this paper (or at least offered that size as an option). I had a lot of trouble with the printing of it because the numbers, letters, and dashes at the bottom of the two pages wouldn’t show up. It was an un-rewritable pdf file, so I couldn’t modify it to allow these to be visible, so I simply hand-wrote them in (perhaps this will invalidate the ballot???). I then went to send it, only to discover that it would not leave Colombia until Tuesday (as it was a national holiday over the weekend), and it said it had to be postmarked “by” November 4th. I called the voting hotline listed on the absentee ballot, and they assured me that being postmarked on the day of the 4th itself would be okay. Therefore, I returned to the only mailing place that was open on the national holiday (which still wouldn’t send it until Tuesday anyway) and followed the instructions that were included with the ballot.

The instructions were very specific and said that I must put the ballot in a sealed envelope labeled “security envelope,” then put in my voter affidavit and seal them both in another envelope. I attempted to follow these rules, but I was told that an envelope inside of another envelope was not allowed for security purposes. I begged to the woman attending me and explained that my ballot would not be counted if I did not do as told. She finally agreed to this and handed me my bill: over the equivalent of $35USD. I then received a call saying she had made a mistake, and it was actually over $50USD, and I would have to return to the office (over a 45-minute bus ride away) to pay the remaining amount... Geez—exercising my democratic rights from afar sure is a hassle and certainly is expensive! 80) I just hope that it arrives and is counted, but (if not) no one can say that I didn’t try!