Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
placeholder article
placeholder article

A First Time Voter’s Absentee Experience

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Virginia Tech chapter.

Let me just start with saying: GO VOTE. It’s crucial to get your voice heard (even if your voice is literally just screaming into the ballot box “WHY GOD WHY”). I know you’re probably tired of hearing it by now, but I’m going to keep obnoxiously pushing the idea. Personally, I’m so thankful that this is my first opportunity to vote; I’d be banging my head against the wall if I was bench warming on this particular sh*t show. Although, realistically, I’m banging my head against the wall either way in this particular election.

Logistically, absentee voting is really not a huge deal. I registered in the passenger seat of my roommate’s car on the way to Gucci Kroger with the radio blasting Heathens for the hundredth time; there’s really nothing to it. It’s mostly basic information you would know off hand, supplemented with CAPTCHA levels of “are you a real person” questions (driver’s license numbers, etc).

After you input all your information, it asks you if you have any reason to vote absentee and you just check the “I’m at Virginia Tech, the greatest school in the universe” box, provided for you. Then you just wait about a week for them to send you the envelope with specific instructions on what to do.

Don’t be alarmed by the papers, once you sit down and read it, it’s really as simple as a scantron style quiz for which alien should be the leader of the free world. Once you’ve grappled with that question, you’re done! My voting scantron paper also had municipal level questions included on it, mostly about funding different civil service projects; i.e. please give us money to rebuild this road/improve our schools.

Then you just bum a postal stamp from your parents or more responsible roomie (because you’re an adult… but not an ADULT adult) and send it off. And there you go, you’ve completed your civil service duties and now have a complimentary license to bug people about voting, guilt-free. GO AMERICA!

Image sources: Image courtesy of Pexels.com, GIFs courtesy of GIPHY.com

I'm a Sophomore in the Statistics major here at Virginia Tech, and (fun fact) I have citizenship in three countries. LETS GO HOKIES
Kaley Roshitsh

Virginia Tech '18

After graduating with a B.S. in Fashion Merchandising and Design from Virginia Tech in 2018, Kaley moved to NYC to start her career with WWD – the authority on the fashion, beauty and retail industries. She is credited with the relaunch of Her Campus at Virginia Tech in 2016, serving as Campus Correspondent for 2 years, building the team to 55+ members while earning multiple Pink chapter level statuses (top-20% of over 330 chapters) and being awarded "Outstanding Organization of the Year" in 2018 at Virginia Tech. Other notable achievements include the annual "Media Mixer" gala and buildout of many strategic content initiatives.