IT'S ALL MY FAULT

Couldn't find my shirt. Still gotta vote.

I've got a confession to make. I'm not happy about it, but I feel I need to come clean here.

Everyone that we (the good guys) wanted to win the elections in Utah lost. Not by much, but just enough to make it worse. And that's what I've got to confess to everyone.

It might be all my fault.

And not because I wrote myself in on the ballot in place of Jim Matheson, subsequently getting others to do the same and amassing a small number of write in votes. That's not what I'm sorry for. That was awesome and Matheson still won.

No, it's because I only open my mail once every three or four weeks. I opened a stack of it last night and there were three or four letters regarding the election, one of which I found particularly interesting. It was from the Salt Lake County Committee To Strengthen Utah's Democracy and they were thanking me for having a fantastic voting record and being an all-around good citizen (which might be the first endorsement on this website next summer when I officially throw my hat in the ring for the 2011 SLC Mayoral election). They also wanted my help. They gave me the names and phone numbers of 5 people that lived in my neighborhood with a so-so voter turnout record over the past four years and asked me to call them and remind them how important it was to get out and vote.

Now, had I seen this letter a few days before the election, which is when I assume it came in the mail, I'm still not sure I would have called them. What if they told me they were only going to vote for Tea Party candidates? I would have had to say something like, "Uh, I mean, I wanted to inform you that the election date has been pushed back to a different day." Or even worse, they may have started telling me all things wrong with the country and I'd be stuck on the phone with them for like 20 minutes nodding my head and saying "Uh huh. I hear you. You know, you're right." Which, I fully understand I will have to do once I dive head first into politics but it doesn't mean I have to enjoy it.

Funny side note about the Tea Party thing - A friend of mine and his brother went to their polling location and were the youngest people there by about 30 years. They were waiting in line, and the old guy, probably late 70s, in front of them had just stepped up to the ballot machine and asked one of the volunteers working the following question.

"How do I vote straight Tea Party ticket."

The woman walked over to help him (and thank goodness there wasn't an actual option for doing that. At least I don't think there was) and my friends brother said, out loud so everyone could hear him, something along the lines of "Are you fucking kidding me? They should put an age restriction on voting the other way too. You can't vote until you're 18 because you're not old enough to make good decisions so I say if you're more than likely going to be dead within the next ten years you shouldn't be allowed to make decisions that are going to fuck things up for the rest of us."

And you know what? I agree with that to some extent. I'm also kind of bummed I wasn't there when he said that. Apparently things got real awkward for the next ten minutes or so.

But back to my apology. I'm sorry I didn't call those people and tell them this election was important. You can blame me if you want.

I need to start getting used to it.