Finding Frozen Pork Heads After Texas Mail-In Voting Mayhem

Mailing my mail-in ballot today, after procrastinating doing so for a couple weeks, with the election less than two weeks away, I went from the post office to Walmart where I was surprised to see Thanksgiving stuff already available, as in dozens upon dozens of frozen Turkeys.

Frozen Turkeys and frozen Pork Heads.

A couple of which you see photo documented above. A frozen Pork Head costs less than ten bucks. What does one do with a Pork Head? I suppose I might find the answer to that probing question via Googling.

Today marked the first time I experienced the Texas version of mail-in balloting. It seemed way more complex than what I remember of the permanent mail-in voting method in my old home state of Washington.

One thing nice about voting in Texas is there are so few things to vote on.

Texas does not seem to embrace the concept of Initiatives, Referendums, Propositions and other ballot measures of the sort one found multiple instances of on a Washington ballot.

I do not think Texas has the Initiative method of getting something on the ballot, where a citizen can come up with an Initiative, something like legalizing marijuana, and if the citizen can get enough signatures the Initiative goes on the ballot.

Back to my experience with today's Texas ballot. I may have rendered it not worthy of being counted. There were two pages to vote on, then those two pages go in an envelope, and then that envelope goes into another envelope addressed to the Elections Administrator.

Well.

I did my voting, folded the two pages. And stuck them in the mailing envelope. Licked the seal, folded down the flap, and signed on the X.

And then I realized I had not put the ballot in the first envelope before sticking it in the mailing envelope. I tried to pry open the mailing envelope. That did not go well. So, I fired up a kettle til I had it steaming, and was soon able to open the envelope.

I extracted the ballot and stuck it in the correct envelope, then stuck that envelope in the mailing envelope which is what I should have done in the first place.

Well, the places where the X marked my signature did not quite line up. Where I'd entered my Driver's License ID number, phone number, last four SS digits and email address, had been slightly mucked up. I was able to over-write the mucked-up parts. And then tried to re-seal the envelope via once again licking, but that was no longer viable.

And so I Scotch taped the envelope closed. 

We shall see if I hear from the Elections Administrator. I suspect I am not the first to make this mistake...