Your vote counts

 Florida’s primary is this month; I’ve already mailed in my ballot. I’ve been absentee voting since Peace Corps in 2007 and have never had a qualm with my vote not being received in time. Usually, though, I wind up getting my ballot well in advance of the spam I get from candidates. I mailed in my ballot a couple of weeks ago and just a couple days ago got an email from someone running for public defender. I don’t remember who I voted for.

 Today is election day in Belarus. The incumbent will win in what many will deem unfair elections. As it, a couple of the opposition candidates have been thrown in jail or run out of the country. In a couple of cases, the spouses of the candidates are running. It’s a big thing right now and there is going to be a country of unhappy people in about 48 hours when the winner is officially announced.

 For the first time in my Foreign Service career, I am in line to be an election observer. This means I’ll be dispatched to a couple of voting sites and I’ll simply report on what goes on. If I see anything wrong, I am to note it but not to try to correct it or anything. Just observe. I talked to someone who did this in another country and she observed people stuffing the ballot. No idea what might happen today, but I think it will be fascinating.

 COVID throws a wrench in it because I’ll have to do this masked. Masks in themselves are fine but oh man, they are awful to wear with glasses. I’ll be observing cool and then my glasses will go foggy and I won’t recognize what is going on.

 Other than work, we’re not supposed to leave the house today or tomorrow just in case. No one expects violence but when the protests gather (again, here that just means “a lot of people standing around clapping or honking cars horns) the police bring out the paddy wagons and start willy-nilly throwing people in jail. They stressed that we need to bring out diplomatic credentials and passport to the polling places today. Tomorrow I will work from home so there’s no concern there.

 My biggest concern today is leaving poor Shelby at home. She’s fine by herself but it guilts me. She loves to sit on my balcony in the morning and just soak up the sun. I discovered a fun podcast – Rewatched or something like that – that goes back and dissects movies that people watch over aand over. I sat out there brushing her for half an hour listening to one on “The Shawshank Redemption.” It’s a pretty fun podcast. I went over “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” this morning, too. It’s kind of addicting.

We thought for a hot minute that Shelby would be able to go home next weekend but it fell through. Her mom found a possible pet shipper but there was no room for her on the flight. Looks like it will be a couple more weeks.  I am thoroughly enjoying her, but her mom is going to get her back way less trained than she is. Her mom is pretty strict on her sniff time during walks and I just let her track whatever it is she’s tracking. As a result, I’m catching her eating street food a little too much. She looks like she’s just sniffing and all of a sudden I realize she’s gulped something down. There is an astounding amount of what appear to be chicken bones all over the green spaces in Minsk.

 Off to observe elections. Be sure to vote. At least in America, your vote counts.