This election season started way too early. I am already so sick and tired of the presidential election that briefly I even considered not voting since it was hard to stomach all of the electioneering.  And we haven’t even gone through the primaries yet!

So I decided that I shouldn’t just ignore the election.  It was time to start educating myself on all of the candidates from my party so I could make a wise decision.  I visited all of the sites of the democratic candidates and signed my email address up to receive updates and such.  After doing this I checked my email to see what kind of responses I received. 

There was one that surprised me.  Mike Gravel’s campaign did not send me a welcoming email.  Instead I received an email saying that in order to register my email with his campaign I had to respond by clicking on a link within the email.  Even at the get go I felt that this was odd.  But I decided to do it. 

I clicked on the link and it took me to a page that wanted me to fill out a lot of information, including my address and employer.  Again, this seemed strange.  Other candidates sent me an email thanking me for joining the team and all I provided them was my name and email.  I glanced over the questions and soon figured out that the link was actually a donation page.  I closed the link. 

Then when I went back into my email I saw that I had received yet another email from Mike Gravel’s campaign.  Wow, my second email within an hour.  I opened the email half expecting a message asking why I didn’t donate money.  Instead, it was an email describing what I can expect from him and his campaign.  First he told me that I should pay close attention to his emails since they were very important.  I rolled my eyes.  But he continued by telling me what I can expect from him—it wasn’t very enlightening. 

However, then he listed what he expected of me.  Well that was interesting so I continued reading.  He wanted me to add him to my address book so his emails would not go into my spam box.  Alright, that didn’t seem too bossy.  Second, he wanted me to have my friends join by entering their email on his site…starting to get a little bossy.  Third, he wanted me to donate $50 to the campaign now.  If I could afford more that would be great, but according to him the average donation was $50.  But, if I couldn’t afford the $50, any amount would do.

This email made me wonder why I decided to bother getting to know the candidates.  All they want is my money.  Can’t I get to know the candidate and the issues without donating money?   The whole election process is getting out of hand.  Just think, all of these candidates raise millions of dollars for their campaigns and only one person will get elected.  Why don’t we just raise money for things that have a better chance of making an impact?  How about raising the money for cancer research?  Or raising it for education?  I don’t want to give money so I can see it invested in smear ads…This election has started way too early.