Adventures in Voting - Paraguay Style.

This will mark the 2nd presidential election that I am eligible to vote in, and it will be the 2nd time I have had to vote via absentee ballot. The first time in 2008, I was away at college and could not make it home on election day, this time I am thousands of miles away.

A few of my other friends were talking about how easy it was for them to vote this year because they could vote via email. I thought, "Oh wouldn't that be great if Maryland let you vote that way." Well .. they don't! I could receive my ballot through email but then had to print it out (finding a printer was an adventure) to cast my vote then mail it.

Well the mail system itself in Paraguay could fill a whole blog post. The closest "post office" to me is 10k away on bike, and lets just say post office is a very liberal term. It is one room at the bus terminal in Coronel Oviedo, and the women that work there aren't very enthusiastic about helping me. So I waited until I was going into Asuncion for the weekend to mail it, where I proceeded to get lost trying to find the post office. I finally made it back to the Peace Corps office, unsuccessful in my mission, when someone at the office told me I could just put my ballot in the embassy "mail box" there at the PC office and the US Embassay would mail it for me.

Now I'm leaving it up to faith that it makes it there on time and that my vote will actually count ...


Have you all voted already (I know MD has early voting)? Has anyone had similar adventures trying to cast their vote in an election?