Today I became a American Citizen, after 35 years in this wonderful country I am proud to said that now I can vote, I registered today, also I applied for my American passport, was a very nice Oath Ceremony, 18.600 people in one day, three differents ceremonies with 6.200 people each.

Isabel
Enjoy life

Congrats Isabel!! Great to have you as a voting member of our country!! And as an American!!

Did you have a big celebration?
And Wow lot of folks involved in the Oath Ceremony!!

That's great, Izzy. Just in time, too, in a big election year.


I nominate Izzy for our own Shopper of the Month.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2008 08:08PM by sneakers.

congratulations!!!

That's great Izzy! Congratulations and welcome!

billie, sneakers, and bugspost : thank you !!. billie, three of my childrens are living in Arizona, and none of them went to the ceremony, the one who is living in California with us can't go because it was at 7:15 am and he was working at the time, after the ceremony my hubby and I went to lunch, his ceremony was on June 19, we plan to go to Arizona for our grandson birthday (July 27) and do some kind of family reunion and celebrate it with our son's, daughters in law, grandson and stepgranchildrens (2 boys and 3 girls)
sneakers, thank you for the nomination!!
After one year, several books, 100 questions, one CD that we were listened at it day and night, I can said: Mission Accomplished!!

Isabel
Enjoy life

I suspect you know more about America than most of us Izzy. I know becoming and citizen isn't easy.
Have a Great Celebration with your family.
And Congrats are in order for your husband too!!

Izzy, congratulations. What a wonderful accomplishment. Best of luck to you and your family.

billie, we had to learn 100 question, the Officer only asked 7 of them, but you never know which one will be, so you need to learn the hundred questions, also dictation and reading.
billie, my hubby said thank you!!
molittleton, to you too, thank you so much!!

Isabel
Enjoy life

You know more than many natural-born Americans, the products of our horrendous school systems.

Congratulations, Izzy. I'm sorry your children didn't get to go. Maybe you can send them a framed picture of the new citizens. I have attended such a ceremony. It was a field trip for our children when we homeschooled. It also was credit for their 4-H Citizenship project forms.

In your state, how do you register for a political party? Here, after we have registered to vote, having voted in our party's primary makes us a member of that party. So if a particular party doesn't have a primary in my county, no resident of the county is officially a member of that party. I have been an Election Judge for many years. If you are in a large city, and it sounds like you are, find the location of the polling place for your residence well in advance, because trying to do it on election day can be frustrating. Some places give rides to voters. And vote like I do! LOL! Also, if you don't know much about a particular candidate, it is alright to leave blank places on the ballot (paper or electronic). You can also vote "straight ticket". Your political party probably has at least quarterly meetings. It's interesting to attend. If you don't want to join a particular party, you might be interested in the League of Women Voters. They have regular meetings and provide lots of non-partisan information. You can get involved with them like any other club, run for club office, be on committees, etc. I am Vice President for Public Affairs of my political party and a member of its women's club. I used to be a member of LWV, but there isn't a chapter where I live now.

Izzy, did you take Citizenship classes or just study on your own? For years, I have wanted to teach the classes, but my inquiries with the government go nowhere. I think I need to go through my Educational Service Center, but since my teaching certificate is in limbo there right now, I decided not to do two things at once. My teaching position this fall is with a private school that is not registered with them, so I won't get credit for the year.

We register in TN when we get our drivers license. Then when we go to vote in a primary we select the primary we are interested in voting..Democrat or Republican. Then when we go to vote in the election we can vote any way we want without any questions asked.

We like to vote early. Keeps ya from having to stand in line all day. Voting early is a walk-in and walk-out easy to vote day.

Sneakers I'm pretty proud of the school system in my county. Most of our students graduate and on an average more attend college than don't attend.

It the case of our school system...the old saying "a rotten apple spoils the barrel" isn't exactly true.

And Dolly has had a lot to do with the school systems in the entire state. Every child from the age of 5 gets a book a month until they graduate high school. And there are many scholarships available to students with the desire and the academic achievement to go to college.

Our lottery system is set up to provide funding for kids who want to go to college.

The biggest problem with kids today is parenting, not school.

People can register when they get their driver's licenses here, providing they are old enough to vote. There are other ways, too. It creates a big problem for the election office, which is on a budget. They get two or three registrations for some people, and correcting it is costly for them.

I can see where that could happen. Just as I can see someone registering to vote in several states. I could run up into Kentucky (10minute drive) take up a residence, get my drivers liscense and voter registration and vote in two states. Until they caught me.
In the two years between major elections a lot of things could be possible. And I have no doubt it happens.

There is a regular fraud ring around here. A candidate tried taking them to court, but stopped when his wife's life was threatened. It's a shame because he was the best regional candidate I had seen in two decades. He is now working inside politics as an employee.

Happened a lot around here in 2000. Someone who was the Daddy (:-)) of it all was going state to state in the south signing up people in every state he could. Even prisoners who have lost their right to vote. Happened in the North too.
They were even signing up people who had been dead for years.

The new system seems to have things like that under control with the advent of the new voting machines. If someone tries to commit fraud an alarm is sounded or a pop-up appears on the screen of folks watching these things. But I'm sure there are ways around these machines too. Just makes it a little harder on those trying to commit "fraud".

I don't know how it works in your state but when we got to vote we have to show them every piece of ID we can muster.

I live in Kentucky, and they check my address in my voting precinct before I am allowed to vote. They have a big log book of all of the "eligible" voters in that precinct.

Judith, you work for Jancyn?

We have a list of things we can use for ID's. It's surprising how many people don't go around with their voter registration in their billfolds. Voter registration is a joke. I'll be glad when they make it harder. I think they are going slow because they don't want to disinfranchise any voter. It is just too easy for people to vote who shouldn't.

I agree Sandra Sue I think there should be a "test" before you can be allowed to vote the first time. I'd most likely fail any voting test at my age. But I believe people should be well informed before they are allowed to vote.

I carry my voter registration all the time. It has it's place in my billfold.

I am enjoying this conversation. Unfortunately, if we had a test, there would be some who would try to control it. I'm thinking of some who might try to take over the country. The answers would be what they wanted them to be.

Sandra Sue, we went to the school for about 3 weeks, we can't learn nothing because the teacher was talking about everything but Citizenship, we quit it, so I printed the 100 question (INS website) and we started to read it, then we went to do the fingerprints, there they gave us the book with the CD, and those helped us a lot, you can read and you can listen, the CD went with us to everywhere we went. Now starting in October will be 150 questions, and more dictation and reading.
About the political party, at the Oath Ceremony was the Republican and the Democrats party, so you register with them.
Isabel
Enjoy life

The "test" could be a general test controlled by each state. I'm never surprised by what people DO NOT know about our country and the voting system.
When we went to vote in the Primary on Super Tuesday, a guy said "who all those other people I had to vote for?" He meant the delegates and he did not have a clue what the delegates have to do with an election. Boggles the mind!!

Izzy there are several more political parties besides the Democrats and Republicans. They aren't very well know but they can end up on the ballot. There's the Independent Party, Freeman Party, Libertarian Party. These others are pretty strange and they never get too far but they do take votes away from the primary candidates

She's probably aware of that, having lived here for 35 years, but experiencing it is a lot different than doing it. The other parties might show up on the presidential slate, but if there is no local party, they can't have local candidates.

In my party, the delegates were voted for at the conventions, the precinct, county and state. At precinct, I just asked for my name to be put down since I would be delivering ballots to the courthouse. At the county convention, we had to interview and present resumes, although we all know each other. Then we were recommended by the committee and voted on. There is a procedure as to which number you are. The first delegate is the highest elected official in the county. They rank the rest of us behind that person, and then rank the alternates. At state, the people who wanted to be delegates to national ran a campaign to be elected. I couldn't afford national; I could barely afford state, and that was sharing gas and a room, and eating what I brought. At state, we had general assembly, and caucused as a senatorial district and a congressional district, under different sets of rules. It was all very interesting. Hobnobbing helps us gain knowledge.

Even working only in the local elections is an eye opener. Did you know that the county election officials have to draw names of the candidates for each race to see who gets to be listed first and who next, and so on? Research has shown that if a voter doesn't know the candidates, the first on the ballot gets more votes, or if the person has a famous name, they will get more votes. I guess voters don't want to vote for a "nobody". When one of our children was about nine, they let him draw the names.

Once, I was on the committee to consider a voted ballot to see if the voter was actually voting legally. It was voted provisionally. I was once the election manager for my party, getting contracts for polling places and hiring all the election workers. It was interesting.

Wow Sandra Sue, what a nice round you have had!! I've always be politically minded and kept up with everything going in politics and the news. Just never considered working for the Machine. My Dad was very political and always told me "if you don't keep up with what's going on..Russian troops will be marching down our streets" Course it would be Terrorist now but the lesson was well learned.

When my hubby and I married he wasn't into politics or much of a new watcher. Now he's glued to the political scene and the news.

He does a lot of performance programs for some of our Politicans around in our area. Gets pretty busy this time of year performing. Always Free Food floating around too!!

What kind of performance, Billiencolosi?

A woman in the next county wrote a book about her experiences on the Electoral College. She recently retired after several years, and one of my friends ran for the office at the state convention and got it. They meet in Austin in early December. I told her I was jealous. She is also our county party chairman. I ran for that office once. I did it only because the man who had the position wasn't going to run again, they needed someone, and I knew how to do the work. Well, he decided to run again, neither of us campaigned, and he won by a very small margin. The vote for that is at the party primary.

My husband doesn't want me to run for office because of all the trouble that comes with it, not to mention no money for campaigning.

I got interested in politics because my grandfather was in county office for 32 years and my father was very interested in politics. My grandmother's sister ran the elections.

My husband owns a Recording Studio and he's a musician too. He and a group do "black tie" and simular parties for politicians running for office. The politicians throw parties as fund raisers. They are a lot of fun and you get to meet some pretty facinating people no matter whether Democrat or Republican.

I was never inclined to run for office.

That sounds like a unique thing to do.

Yes it is Sandra Sue. We have a lot of fun and get to met the politicians first hand up close and personal. And seeing as how I'm the wife I get to go along and enjoy too. A Great perk for being a wife. LOL!!

I really enjoy the "black tie" events. Everyone is dressed to the "nines" Most of these events it's a dinner followed by live music and dancing. Hubby plays solo dinner music during the dinner. Then the group play "Big Band" during the dancing. (Glenn Miller and others of his gendre.) I love ballroom dancing and I get to do the Tango!!

Wow. You can learn a lot about a candidate from first impressions. I bet that helps when it comes time to vote.