Voting Day, like today, is always a bittersweet day for me. I am one of those unfortunate people who has never voted :-( I left India (my country of citizenship) when I was 14, and lived in Cairo for 4 years till I was 18. I never got a chance to vote because India's process of absentee ballots is extremely complicated, error prone and simply dysfunctional. Back then, I actually thought I would go back to live in India some day so my vote would count... some day. That day has yet to materialize. I moved to the US for college when I was 18, and have never lived in India since. In the last 14 years, I have lived primarily in the US, with a couple years in the UK and very briefly in South Africa, always as a non-citizen, never being able to vote.
But of course the decisions of other people's votes affect me just the same - I pay my taxes, I care about gay marriage, school districts, unemployment, global warming. Except unlike everyone else who went to the vote today, I don't have a say in any of it. Perhaps because of this, I am even more acutely aware of the importance of voting and representation than those who take it for granted. I cannot imagine not showing up to vote, when you are able to do so! Eventually, I will come to the realization that this is my home and will probably get a US citizenship and ability to vote. But until then, I count on other rational individuals to vote, and to keep in mind thousands (millions?) of folks like me: "legal aliens" who are also represented through your votes.
