{"id":210520,"date":"2016-11-05T11:23:41","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T17:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=210520"},"modified":"2016-11-05T11:27:23","modified_gmt":"2016-11-05T17:27:23","slug":"i-voted-and-it-was-easy-you-should-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/11\/i-voted-and-it-was-easy-you-should-too\/","title":{"rendered":"I voted, and it was easy. You should too."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Voting\"

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

The scene outside the Do\u00f1a Ana County Government Center on Friday.<\/p><\/div>\n

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> I voted on Friday. It was easy.<\/p>\n

I arrived at the Do\u00f1a Ana County Government Center to find a steady stream of people entering and leaving the building. A man stood near the entrance\u00a0wearing a bright orange shirt with the words “Jesus saves” on it. He held a tall, thin, white cross.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0watched him closely. Was he politicking? You can’t campaign that close to a polling place.<\/p>\n

But he wasn’t. He was just standing there smiling. Some people approached and had a friendly conversation with him while I was nearby.<\/p>\n

\"Voting\"

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

There was a line to vote, but it moved quickly.<\/p><\/div>\n

Inside, there were about 20 people in line, and it took me a few minutes to get my ballot. The technician was friendly, knowledgeable and visibly tired. “We’ve had about 3,000 voters today,” she told me.<\/p>\n

I joked with her and another county employee for a moment. I thanked them for their important and hard work. Then I found a cardboard kiosk and filled out my ballot.<\/p>\n

Voting\u00a0was that easy. I inserted my ballot into a\u00a0machine, watched it record my submission, got a sticker that said I voted, and left.<\/p>\n

As I walked out of the building, I saw that the line of people waiting to vote had grown quickly to about 50 people. There’s lots of interest in this election. Turnout is up.<\/p>\n

There were no protesters or people peering at voters with suspicious eyes. I saw folks\u00a0smile at each other and have cordial conversations.<\/p>\n

Others may have different experiences, but that was mine.<\/p>\n

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago<\/a>, I understand that some people are frustrated with our political system. I certainly am. I’ve talked with people who don’t want to vote at all this year. And you don’t have to. It’s your choice.<\/p>\n

But I believe you should vote.\u00a0Staying involved is the only hope we have for creating a better society for ourselves and future generations.<\/p>\n

You can leave certain races blank. You don’t have to vote for president if you don’t like the candidates. There are local and state races, judicial retention questions, a constitutional amendment, and funding issues on the ballot too.<\/p>\n

Your vote matters.<\/p>\n

Early voting in New Mexico ends Saturday. Tuesday is Election Day. In New Mexico, you can figure out when and where you can vote by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"I

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

I voted!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were no protesters or people peering at voters with suspicious eyes. I saw people smile at each other and have cordial conversations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":210523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[708],"class_list":["post-210520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-2016-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}