I did something yesterday that I didn't want on my to-do list. It wasn't my favorite choice, and I'd rather buck the system, but as the old saying goes, you have to pick your battles, and it would be absolutely insane to fight this one too far when we have a VERY winnable front at this point.

I broke down and applied for medical assistance.

The first thing I noticed, for those who care to note it, is that I am actually eligible for NOTHING, medical assistance wise. The state of Texas, quite frankly, doesn't care if I live or die. Just so long as my family has medical assistance. So, other than an ER visit (which, trust me, isn't very fruitful if you have no insurance), there's no way the bum knee or the ticker's getting treated in the next ten months.

I began filling out the forms, and the first thing that struck me was how hard they are to navigate, because every line must be written in two languages. Now, while I'm not a fan of the whole multilingual movement of this country, frankly, I'd rather see them type out seperate forms for part of it and make the process simpler.

But then came the real fun part. The part where it asked me to register me to vote. The way the form's set up, you actually have to opt OUT of being registered to vote; there are two signature lines and you have to sign one. The most obvious one, obviously, registers you.

First of all, I KNOW of instances of voter fraud that have gone on this way. People in group homes get registered when they apply for food stamps, for instance, and the group home manager has access to their proxy vote, if he wants it. Because of their limited mobility, he could order absentee ballots for all of his residents, fill them out identically and send them in and noone would be the wiser. I know of group home managers that have done this, and I'm guessing if they've figured it out, others have too.

There is absolutely positively NOTHING wrong with having to actively seek out a place to register to vote. Frankly, if you're too stupid to find your way to a voter registrar, especially since they are so prominently fixed at various areas where people gather, you are probably too stupid to cast an intelligent vote anyway. But perhaps that's exactly the person *they* want voting.

Has it really come to this? Don't get me wrong, I don't long for the days of poll taxes and grandfather clauses. But was this really the vision of those who fought for voting equality, that voter registration would become so self serve? As it is, you can register with the DMV, at the library, when you pay your car registration, at county fairs, business expos, and when you apply for assistance. It would be no surprise to me to discover that with so many places to vote there are actually people who hold multiple registrations. It's not much of a stretch to see how this would be possible.

Given all of this *convenience* it's also possible the *true* voter apathy numbers are, themselves, inflated (sorry, Tova...I still support the apathy party's astounding victory in Ohio). I mean, you can register all the voters you want...but you can't make them show up at the polls. And (yes, I know, I'm going to get blasted here) unless you're offering free meth, money, or green cards, a lot of them will stay home.

So let's get back to some sanity, shall we? I really, really do NOT want to be asked if I want to register to vote next time I'm in the supermarket checkout line!