Ya! I Voted!

For the first time since I was old enough to vote, I won't be making it to the polling place come election day. I'm going to be on vacation, you see. But I am voting. Already have, in fact. Dropped my absentee ballot in the mail just this morning. So why do I feel like I just dropped it into a bottomless pit, never to be seen by human eyes again?

The cynic in me doesn't believe that absentee ballots are actually counted at all. Of course that can't be true, but has an election ever been decided by a count of absentee ballots? I kind of feel like come election night when the vote counters, or whatever, get done with that day's ballots, they look over at a pile of absentee ballots and sarcastically mutter, "Oh, let's not forget these guys."

Undoubtedly I have the whole process wrong. Nonetheless, I don't really feel like I've actually gone and done my civic duty. Maybe it's because I don't get to sport a condescending "I Voted" sticker for the rest of the day.