I mailed in my Hawaii ballot today - so nice to just fill in some bubbles like an SAT and pop it in the mailbox instead of standing in line at a polling place.  Regardless of your political affiliation, I urge you to get out and vote today.  As they say in Hawaii...

http://static.wixstatic.com/media/58ed69_584926d6ac8d426f9c2f75c8e9e74c52.png/v1/fill/w_364,h_103,al_c,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/58ed69_584926d6ac8d426f9c2f75c8e9e74c52.png



That being said, I thought back to the last US presidential election in 2012 and realized that I didn't cast a vote.  I was living in Tokyo at the time and could have gotten an absentee ballot from New York as I had done in 2008, but for some reason I didn't bother.  A quick check of Facebook (which is now only useful as a personal historical record) revealed that in the fall of 2012, I was in the process of moving all my possessions from Tokyo to Hawaii while trying to get a green card for my wife and tending to my 2-year-old daughter at home while my 3-month-old daughter was in the hospital with [RS virus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_respiratory_syncytial_virus)!  Needless to say, Romney-Obama was the last thing on my mind.

But I have no excuses this year.  I've settled nicely into Hawaii life, my wife is a permanent resident, and the girls are healthy.  Life is good, and hopefully my vote can do a little something to make it a little better.

https://www.sjpl.org/sites/default/files/images/ballot-box-graphic.jpg