ABSTRACT
In the November 2000 US Presidential election I did not vote. Like many of my fellow baby-boomers, I was relatively nonchalant about failing to participate. In my own mind, I felt that I had a pretty good excuse. About a week before the election my father had undergone heart bypass surgery. I had flown across the country on short notice to be there, and the thought of getting an absentee ballot before I left California was not something that crossed my mind. (By the time I arrived back on the East Coast it was too late to request an absentee ballot by mail, but I later realized I could have requested one in person just before I left.) Ironically, I was able to keep a few commitments on election day to do radio interviews on the topic of nonvoting by simply emailing the producers that I would be at a different phone number. The fact that I was not voting that day came up a couple times on the air and led to further interesting discussion, but no real embarrassment on my part.
