Monday, April 21, 2008

I can vote!

I went back to my old home town of Santa Fe, New Mexico to attend the OpenEye conference. Afterwards I stayed for a while to dance, visit friends, eat green chile, enjoy seeing mountains, and things like that. Got a bit of a sun tan too, that a lot of people remarked about when I got back to Sweden.

One of my errands was to get registered as an overseas voter. All I can vote for are federal elections, but I do so based on my last residency, so I'll be able to vote for representative and senator this year. (Domenici is quitting - yeah! - and my rep, Tom Udall, is going for the seat.) Oh yes, and president.

From what I can tell, the City of Santa Fe (full name in its lovely glory is: La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís) is well run. The few times I've dealt with them has been enjoyable. Once was when I went to the neighborhood association meeting, and people from the city came by in their off-hours to tell us about the long term plans for the area and hear grievances. One of the neighborhood people had sent a multiple page listing of all the problems he had spotted, like problems with drains and walkways and things like that. To me I thought he was a bit petty, but the city guy said he had gotten it, checked it out, about half were real problems, and they would schedule them to be fixed.

Another time was when I wandered about City Hall wondering if I could get a map of the neighborhood. I met the GIS guy and he was very helpful and friendly.

This time I again wandered about, asked a woman at a desk that looked like it was a "ask me questions" sort of place. She said to go to another building, and with a bit of clarification I knew which one that was. Went there, walked in the door, first left and I was in the correct office. There was a bit of confusion as I explained myself, but a phone call cleared up what they needed from me. I filled out a form, made a mistake, got another form, and get it to the helpful guy behind the desk.

Just made me feel all happy about my government.

I haven't missed a federal election since I gained suffrage.