What? I can't vote?

I woke up at 4:45 this morning with the realization that I will not be in Pennsylvania on election day. There is no early voting in Pennsylvania, and the state only tells you that you "may" be able to vote absentee. You must state your reason for being out of town. No excuses of any kind are allowed if you are present in the county on the day of the election. Your excuse has to be a "duty" of some kind but can include vacation if you are employed. So I'm hoping that the reason I gave for going to Utah will pass muster, otherwise I won't be voting in this election. I mailed off my request for an absentee ballot today. This is way before the deadline, but if they don't get it to me before I leave on the 29th, I've been disenfranchised.

This stinks. But voting as an expat must also stink. I found a number on the Internet which may or may not be accurate: 3.7 million expats (including my daughter and her husband). That's a whole heck of a lot of people, many of whom care very much about their home country and how it's run. And judging from mail service in some countries, I bet a lot of them don't get their ballots in time to return them by the deadline in the US.

I found early in-person voting to be very convenient in Texas, especially as a school teacher. So for today at least, The Keystone State is the Stone Age State. I looked it up. Thirty-four states allow early in-person voting without an excuse. More will allow it with an excuse. Come on Pennsylvanians, get with the rest of the world. Early voting is cool and is the way to go.