MacBrave's Journal: Absentee ballot opinion

Is is just me, or does absentee ballots (and for that matter, early voting) use seem to be on the upswing?

And what's funny, it seems to be mostly for the wrong reasons. Listening to NPR this morning there was a story where they briefly interviewed about 3 individuals who had applied for absentee ballots. The tone I got from the interviews was that they were voting absentee because 'the polling times were inconveniant' and 'I don't want to stand in line for 2 hours'.

Sorry, but voting is one of those small prices we pay for being a democracy. Having to get up an hour earlier in the morning to go vote, or having to stand in line shouldn't be an issue, it should be something you take pride in as an American.

I know that there are valid reasons why people vote absentee but a lot of people out there seem to be taking advantage of the system and voting absentee not because getting to the polls on election day would be difficult/impossible but because it's simply too inconveniant.