Ed made me do it

Yesterday was election day!

The BEST thing about that is the election is now over! I've been inundated with fliers in my mailbox about every candidate and initiative for weeks, but most annoying was Ed Pottharst.

Ed was running for King Co. Council District 4. Ed has been leaving pre-recorded "vote for me" messages on my home voicemail pretty much EVERY SINGLE DAY for at least the 10 days prior to the election. I've been using the ongoing absentee ballot system for several years now, so my ballot was already filled out and mailed by the time this special brand of harassment began.

Finally, after about 10 days of daily messages imploring me to vote for Ed, I called their campaign headquarters and left them a message. I told them I've already voted, I'm tired of getting these canned voicemails on my home phone every day, please remove my number from their call list, and basically let them know that even if Ed were The Greatest Candidate That Ever Existed! I probably would be disinclined to vote for him, simply because I was annoyed with the harrassment.

This of course brings me to my rant about phone company extortion. You have to pay money, every month (and applicable taxes on that fee) to keep your telephone number from being published/sold off to whomever Qwest can make a buck from. Granted, the fee is relatively small—about 75 cents additionally each month—but there are plenty of people out there who really, honestly can't afford to pay any extra money. Oftentimes these folks are often the most vulnerable to phone scams, and their published phone number makes them fish in a barrel. People like your elderly neighbor, who lives on a fixed income.

I could go on and on, and I never go into the detail that I could/should/would if I wasn't at work ;).