Election Day

If you don't know that it is election day in the U.S. today, you've been living under a rock.

While it is election day, I don't get to vote. I am a loyal tax payer and a law abiding, legal permanent resident of the United States. Still, I don't get to vote. If I'd want to vote, I'd have to become a U.S. Citizen. That would mean giving up my Dutch citizenship--as required by the Dutch government--and I am not (yet) willing to do that.

I do vote in the Netherlands, but that doesn't mean as much on the world stage, obviously. Looking at where I'd cast my U.S. vote, California, it wouldn't make much difference on the national stage, since most Californians vote democrat. However, I would like to vote down (in the case of proposition 8) and support some of the endless propositions and initiatives on the California ballot, but alas.

In the Netherlands anyone who has lived there for more than five years gets to vote, regardless of nationality.