Unfortunately, I did not vote

To the Editor:

I did not vote last Tuesday.

I was prepared to do so, had given it some thought and made my choices, wrote no less than two blogs about how I came to my choices, even showed up at the polling place -- Brazil City Hall.

But I did not vote.

My tale of woe began two days beforehand, at about 10 a.m., Sunday.

It was about then I started having classic "heart attack symptoms," resulting in a successful TransCare trip to Union Hospital's fine new ER.

For the record, I did not have a heart attack. I was greatly weakened by the event.

For a variety of reasons, I chose to go home Tuesday. One of those reasons was my desire to stop and vote.

It is not that I thought my vote mattered that much, or would somehow be the deciding factor.

However, there were at least four contests in which I had particular interest and win or lose, I wanted to be able to say I voted for those men.

My wife, Kay, stopped on the way home at City Hall so I could vote.

All things considered, I did not have the ability to walk up the steps, go through the voting process, and hope to walk out without more paramedic assistance.

Kay took my driver's license inside and requested "handicap" assistance, something which under other circumstances, had been provided me before when I'd voted at the more readily accessible Northview High School.

After a while, Kay returned, unsuccessful.

First, an error had to be corrected because my name had been crossed off when the other David Lewis voted absentee.

And, I could not vote from the car, but would have to come in.

I might have been able to get in, but not back out. We left. I did not vote in the 2012 election.

Perhaps if one of my guys had lost by one vote, I'd have a dog in the fight. As it is, one vote didn't matter.

I do not know whether my right to vote was denied because, at least on this occasion, the polling place was inaccessible for me.

Nor do I know if there is some inherent right to insist my limitations be accommodated.

I do know that I did not vote for the candidates in which I had an acute interest.

And, I did discover that one vote doesn't seem to matter.

David Lewis,

Brazil