Vote This: A Rant

Like many of you, this is the first presidential election that I get to vote in. And it's a big one. When it came time to register, I had to make a pivotal decision: Philly or absentee? As a reluctantly proud Midwesterner, I decided to vote in that seemingly swingiest of states this election... good ol' Missouri. According to the statistics genius over at FiveThirtyEight.com (seriously, this guy is a baseball stat whiz turned political projection wunderkind), Missouri is clinging on to the Obama blue. But barely. Read: my vote counts. A lot.

As such, I ordered my ballot, had it sent to my house on Walnut and filled that sucker out. But wait... I had to get it notarized? Annoying, but valid I suppose. After some probing, the folks over at PLTV told me I could find a notary at the Franklin Building (that place you go to replace your PennCard when you drunkenly hide it and can't get into the Quad). Perfect — down the street and just feet from LTs. Or so I thought. Sure, the process was easy enough, but I had to be vigilant in finding a proper notary. Plus, they charged me $5. Such a scam, right? Isn't charging someone to vote illegal? Sure, I wasn't asked to pay at a polling station, but still. Not cool.

So, Penn: make it easier for us non-tristaters and have those notaries more visibly available. And free. It's your civic duty.