MadZee is doing his first voting this year.  He’s attending the University here in Knoxville, but his registration is back in Virginia, where he graduated from high school.  So, he’s doing absentee voting.  Last Fall he did a vote for the local Virginia elections in November.  Now, he’s doing the Super Tuesday primary vote for Virginia.  He doesn’t keep up with politics like the rest of us around here – too busy with classes and basketball it seems.

He brought his absentee ballot with him this evening to fill out.  Pretty late in the process, as it turns out.  It needs to get back to the local election commission by 7 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.  So I’m running out to overnight his absentee envelope tomorrow morning.

MadZee was doing some due diligence.  I wouldn’t say a lot, since he wouldn’t have waited til the last second if he was really being diligent.  But I remember being 18.  Vaguely, anyway.  He said he wasn’t sure whom to vote for.  He did one of those online quizzes and it didn’t give much differentiation between the candidates for him.

I asked him what his issues are.  He said, climate change first.  Then, maybe immigration.  And criminal justice.  He mentioned getting people who have finished their time the right to vote.

So, I told him a little about the candidates as I see them.  From the perspective of a Warren voter who does not have Bernie as his second choice.  I mentioned that the MadDoc voted for Pete.  My mom came out of her cave and we asked her who she would vote for (the grandmas still don’t have their Tennessee IDs, although they will by August – in time to vote for me).  She said Bloomberg.  Then, the MadDoc’s mom came downstairs from her room and she dropped the bomb that she had just heard that Pete was dropping out.  She said she would vote for Biden.

I’m pretty sure MadZee’s mom is leaning Bloomberg and he sounded at first like he was going that way too.  I’ll admit I put a thumb on the scale against Bloomberg and gave some of the oppo research on the Mayor.  MadZee pondered over dinner and eventually went for the former Vice President.  I half expected the youngster to go for Bernie.  Once upon a time, he was a fan of Andrew Yang.  I like Biden well enough.  I think he’s more electable than Bernie and will have longer coattails.  Biden’s no Warren, but he could have done worse for his first foray into voting for the President.