I Voted for Kerry

Yes, I confess I voted for John Kerry in 2004.

And I regret it.

Of course, I voted in Chicago, so if I had voted for anyone else, my ballot, if it had been counted at all, would in great probability have been counted as a "Kerry" vote anyway. (One secret for those of you who believe that voting is important: if you vote in Chicago, register as a Democrat to avoid any "accidents" happening to your ballot....doing so won't ensure your vote will be counted if you cast it for the wrong person, but at least your ballot will not be presumptively suspect to the poll watchers in the pay of the Daley-Stroger machine.) Still, corruption or no corruption, Chicagoans' veneration of the Democratic party and Chicago's stranglehold on the rest of Illinois would have probably ensured Kerry would take this state's (22?) electoral votes.

Kerry was the first Democrat I voted for for president. In 2000, I voted for Nader and in 1996 I voted for Dole. I didn't register in time to vote in 1992 (I turned 18 about a week before that election) but at the time my mindset was such as to vote for Bush Sr.

For voting for Kerry, all I got was the satisfaction of knowing I had marked a name on a ballot that several other thousand in this state marked. And my ballot made absolutely no difference in the outcome of the election.