Donnie Douglas
                                Contributing columnist

Donnie Douglas

Contributing columnist

HIS VIEW

I just voted, extending my streak of darkening a ballot in presidential elections to 13, doing so without ever missing an opportunity. It was easy, certainly more so than the first time I voted in a presidential election, which was 1976, and required that I risk my life hitchhikeing 123 miles from Chapel Hill to Lumberton, where I was registered, to cast a ballot for what turned out to be the losing candidate.

I was excited to vote in that election, believing that voting was not only a right but a duty. I still feel that way.

I rallied from that slow start and am now 7-5 in presidential elections, and I will tell you never have I been less excited about a preferred presidential candidate than I was on Thursday. Since I believe both candidates are incredibly flawed, if for different reasons, I do not think I have tipped my hand.

Nor will there be a reveal.

During 48 years of voting, I can only remember once that I failed to exercise this right that so many Americans take for granted, and that was during a mid-summer referendum when I simply forgot. While my almost perfect record of voting might not earn me a cookie, I must point out that during about half of those elections there was a single day to cast the ballot as no Early Voting existed.

I reject the litany of excuses that are offered for why some people do not vote: getting an ID is difficult; cannot find the time; cannot get transportation to the polling site. Voting is easy – as it should be.

Those who do not vote do not face insurmountable obstacles, they simply lack the motivation, and that is especially true in Robeson County, which ranks high in apathy.

On Thursday, it took me 6 minutes, and 44 seconds to vote, the timer starting when I parked my car at the Board of Elections Office on Walnut Street in Lumberton and ending when I cranked the vehicle up to leave. It would have been faster except a stranger stopped me briefly to chat.

I was stopped again when I entered the Pine Street Activity Center and was asked to show my photo ID, which I was glad to provide, having advocated hard and often for many years as editor of this newspaper that voter ID was a way to prevent election fraud. I then followed directional arrows to two stations, where I first signed a document saying I was indeed who I claimed to be, and the second where I received my ballot.

I then filled out the ballot in a booth, deposited it into the voting machine, No. 1045 on the day, which seemed like a sizable number for 2:38 in the afternoon. Still, I know that turnout in this county will be low, probably only around 50 percent, and my hunch is only about 70 percent of the 162 million eligible Americans will bother to vote during this election.

As editor of this newspaper, I used to recycle a tattered editorial on the eve of Early Voting imploring people to vote, cutting and pasting it again and again while changing a few words to fool readers into thinking it was fresh. I would point out that Americans had died to give you the right to vote, and that while your vote might not decide who the president, governor or congressman will be, it might decide a local election and those are the politicians who hold the most sway over our daily lives.

I have no idea if my words pushed people to the polls then or will now. But there are no valid excuses not to vote.

I received a sticker boasting that I had voted and snuck out with a free pen.

The best part, however, was the measure of satisfaction for exercising my right and duty.

Reach Donnie Douglas by email at ddouglas521@hotmail.com.