Jami Elects to Vote

Hi Folks, I know I 'd normally be saying something like 'Hey, don't forget to get out and vote tomorrow!' but today I'm going to put a twist on it. Voting is a privilege and it's important. It's also not just something you do because it's election day. So, please don't vote if:

• You are voting for a candidate because you like their hair or teeth or the way they talk or they're from your hometown/college/favorite team. Don't vote if you don't know why this person is better than the other one. There is still time to look at where a person stands on the issues that are most important to you and vote with your head, not your mood. That's figurative of course, please use your hand on the actual machine.
• You are going to pull the whole lever for one party. Sorry, I don't believe that every person in one party is the one who best suits you. Please, at least look at each set of names. And if you don't know either name, how about not voting in that race?
• You have already voted. I know there are lots of ways to get extra votes this year, and how about we all agree to just vote the once per live, over-18, non-make-believe citizen?
• You are voting for the person's race or gender. Don't vote for Obama just so you can say you helped elect the first black president. Don't vote for McCain so you can be part of electing the first woman VP.

I guess that's about it for my list of Don'ts. I hope most of all that after tomorrow BOTH sides are gracious about the outcome.

Oh - and is anyone else sort of horrified by this idea of early voting? Doesn't that just scream out for opportunities for fraud? It's already not fair that the primaries in different states at different times can take away my choices, but now the actual vote??