My primary voting failure

This morning I buckled my kid into her car seat, drove through our neighborhood and walked up the church steps to vote. I was ready. I knew who I would choose in the primary race for governor. I had picked out my other candidates, too. I walked in and was greeted by smiles of my voting volunteers. (They really are the best.) I love voting.

I recently switched my voter registration from independent to affiliated. I grew up in Arkansas, which has open primaries. You register however you want and then you vote with whichever primary ballot you prefer on election day. When I moved to Oklahoma, I was sad to discover this after I showed up to vote. I prefer not to be affiliated because of my job, so I was a registered independent. This day, registered independents didn’t have anything to vote on. I was shocked. I left, feeling let down and frustrated with myself for not knowing Oklahoma was a closed primary state.

My daughter looks back at the door to our family polling place in sadness.

So for this election, with all the excitement of a governor’s race, I switched to a party affiliation so I could vote in the primary.