For the past two months I had been thinking about changing my voter registration temporarily in order to vote in one of the primaries. Initially I intended to become a republican in order to vote for Ron Paul. Even after it was clear that McCain had it wrapped up, I still considered making the symbolic gesture. Then I began to consider becoming a democrat in order to vote in a primary that might actually mean something. At one point I logged in to PA's high-tech Web site where you can change your party electronically. I selected one of the major parties but could not bring myself to hit the submit button.

That was a month ago. Yesterday I knew that I had one more day to meet the deadline. So I searched for the PA voter page and it took me about 20 minutes to find it because their menus are so screwed up. Finally, I found the link to change my registration and I got this page. What a pile of garbage.

So I filled out the online printable form and printed it out. Then I got cold feet again and could not put it in my mailbox for pickup. After I got home for work today, I told myself I wanted to do this. So I drove to the main post office, which I knew was closed, but hoped that they had a machine that would put a postmark as well as a stamp on my envelope. Nope, just plain stamps. I peered through the slot in the maildrop and saw absolutely no activity in the back. Last pickup for the slot was 5:45, and it was 7:15 by then.

Remembering that one of the grocery stores had a post office in the store, I drove to the north side of town. It was not in Giant. It was not in Wal-Mart. Finally, I discovered that it was in Weis. Grasping my letter, I head to the desk and ask if the envelope would be postmarked with todays date. "Sorry, no" was the answer. All mail from this satellite was postmarked at the main office, and had to be there before 6 PM to get a postmark for that day.

So that was that.