My First Voting Experience

Today, it snowed in New York City and walking under the lightly falling snow flakes amidst the barren trees, the weather somewhat resembled the Russian one, but of course to a lesser degree.
I was also prepared to cast my very first ballot, in the first full-swing proportional representation legislative elections of the Russian Duma.

Busy as I am, I was able to arrive at the Voting Center only past 19:00. To my surprise, the process was very smoothly run that the whole thing took, at most, 10 minutes. And yes, I consider that to be very fast, since I lived during at the Soviet Union times and queues were one of the trade marks of that period of time.

Anyhow, greeted and seated, one of the members of the Consulate General took down my passport's info, asked me to sign next to my name and ushered me into the booth. 1,2,3... Their's and my job were done!

Many of my friends mocked me for actually going to cast a ballot. They argued the elections are rigged. I think that's irrelevant. In my opinion it is a civic duty that any citizen of any country owes his/her country. Complaining and fulminating is futile. If change is what we want to see, we have to practice what we have, both right and duty, to achieve it. Our civic duty.

Take care all