Civic duty

Am I the only one who finds voting stressful? And, now that I think about it, a lot of civic duties are stressful. Jury duty, for example. For the record, I think I would be a horrible jury member. I sense that I would come away with lots of questions and doubts and I just don't recommend me for jury duty.

But voting. That comes around much more frequently than jury duty and there is no lottery setup, where you might get out of it. And it's just...the worst. 

I think I could handle it if I had to choose from a series of good candidates. I mean, that would be the dream. But usually, it's choosing between a series of undesirable candidates. And there's the ballots where there's only one candidate. 

The closer to the local level you get, the less information there is. I tend to resort to whoever bothered to fill out their bio on the free election website. At least they bothered to put in that low hanging level of effort. 

Furthermore, why are some of these positions elected? Why is the state auditor an elected official? Or the coroner? (Not a thing in my state, but it is in some). It's weird. Just hire someone, for crying out loud. Not everything needs to be a vote.

And don't get me started on the mail. I will vote for the candidate who opts to save the planet by not sending out a bunch of junk email telling me about how bad their opponent is. And whoever doesn't text me with dramatic warnings of doom. I'm not into drama, especially trumped up drama. 

Yeah, voting stresses me out. Nevertheless, I will do it. Because it is my responsibility as a citizen. But, I would really love it if it could be less stressful.