I'm not paddling into the rivers of the debate flowing on this opinion page to tell you that you have a civic duty to fulfill by voting in this year's election.
If you want to abstain because you think the 1st Congressional District candidates are better suited for a no-holds-barred, queen-of-the-cage match, I'm not wagging my finger at you. That's your choice. If you think one vote of the more than 400,000 that will be cast in this election is going to show Patricia Madrid and Heather Wilson you're not putting up with them running such an in-the-muck campaign, more power to you. That one vote is going to grab them by the ears, I'm sure.
For those of you who are voting, here's advice from someone who's been through the odyssey that is the new paper ballot: Vote early.
That paper ballot is about as cumbersome as tying your shoes with your toes. The best part, though, is if you fill it out wrong, which, because you're only allowed to use a pen, is absurdly possible, little R2D2 will vomit it out at you as the words "Spoiled Ballot" flash across the electronic tabulator's tiny screen.
To be sure, the paper trail that the ballots will leave is much more important than wanting to knee little R2 in the electronic groin if it spits it back, but if you wait until Nov. 7 to go vote, bring some dense reading: maybe Franz Kafka's The Trial, Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, the phone book, etc.
There are two sides to the 11 by 17 inch ballot, and people will make mistakes-- by answering something twice or filling out a bubble wrong, said several of the clerks when I voted. And when they make mistakes, they have to fill out their two-sided ballots all over again. And when people haven't figured out who or what they're voting for before they get to the polls, you can see how long this could take.
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I voted Friday night and timed how long it took from filling out the identification card - there was no one ahead of me in line when I went - to stuffing my ballot into R2's mouth: 12 minutes and 37 seconds. And I knew that ballot up and down before I went in there.
So, get to an early voting site before Saturday at 6 p.m. Sites are open all over town, and you can find locations and hours on our Web site, DailyLobo.com.
The clerks said Friday afternoons and evenings have been the least-crowded times, with no more than five people waiting in line. And, if you check the locations and hours, you will see most sites are open until 8 p.m. on Friday, and all of them are opened until 6 p.m. on Saturday, the last day to early vote.
That's it. All the work's done for you. Tell R2 I said hello.
Riley Bauling
Editor in chief
