My Special Delivery Ballot for Election 2008

I wasn't home early Saturday evening (11/1), but my family told me I had a visitor.

It was an employee of the Spartanburg County Voter Registration and Elections Office, hand-delivering my absentee ballot to my home.

I was floored... -pleasantly-... when I found out.

But the story gets even better. Let me first explain why such a delivery became necessary.

Last Monday (10/27) I decided to vote absentee because I couldn't risk being stuck in line at the polls for hours on election day (I normally vote in person).

I went to the voter registration office, stuck my head in the door and couldn't believe my eyes. The line of voters waiting snaked through the office. Hundreds of people must've been in line.

I decided to return home, call the voter registration office and request a ballot be mailed to me. It was Monday; I figured I'd get it by Wednesday, mail it Thursday, and it's in the voter registration office by Friday, no sweat.

Brilliant me!

I must've called the office half-a-dozen times that day. It immediately rang "busy" each time, except for the one time it did actually ring, and no one answered.

Later that day at News Channel 7, I reached an elections worker on the phone. She told me I could apply to have an absentee ballot mailed to me just by faxing over the required information. It took three tries, but I finally got it right and figured I had done a smart thing. No lines, no waiting, no hassle, no problem.

Brilliant me!

Tuesday... Wednesday... Thursday... Friday... no ballot.

Mid-afternoon Saturday, the elections employee called my home and said she would be delivering a ballot to me before the day was over. She was true to her word and brought it just after dark.

Here's where the story gets even better.

The elections worker also told my family that if I would bring the ballot back to her office and call her cell phone number, she would personally come to the curb and take the ballot from me. I wouldn't even have to get out of my car.

I put her offer to the test this morning.

Sure enough, when I called, she told me where she'd be waiting. I described my car to her, and when I pulled into the parking lot, I could see her waving.

I rolled down the passenger window, handed her the ballot and asked her why in the world she needed to go to the trouble of bringing the ballot to my house.

She told me the elections office was buried in ballot requests, and there was concern the ballots wouldn't get where they needed to be in time if they were mailed. So she hand-delivered as many as she could.

Government gets a lot of criticism, much of it deserved.

But folks, here is an instance where a county worker (and probably many others) deserves all the credit in the world. After several no doubt difficult weeks of trying to keep voters happy and keep the voting process fair and legal, this kind person took the time (her personal time) to make sure I had a ballot and adequate opportunity to fill it out and return it.

I shook her hand and gave her sincere thanks.

My vote has never meant so much as it does this Election 2008.