vote

I registered to vote by downloading the form from Rock the Vote's website, and sent it in on Oct. 8. Rock the Vote told me to send it to Albany - the state board of elections. Then they kindly told me via email that there was some trouble brewing - a combination of massive volume, plus it was all being sent to the Albany office. Normally, registration forms are sent to the county board of elections office for local processing.
So I'm not *technically* registered to vote. I'm not "in the book." Which means, I guess, that I'm not listed on the voter rolls for my polling place. I have to ask for a provisional ballot, which will be very likely thrown out when they reconcile the votes after 9pm. If my name still isn't "in the book" by then, my vote is thrown away.
So with this background, I started thinking that I would just skip voting, since NY is going blue anyway. Who needs my vote?
But this morning, I woke up at 5:30am. Polls open at 6am. I'm going to vote before work. And since I have a 9am meeting, I want to do it before work. Local TV is showing extremely long lines at UES polling places.
I'm going to cast my ballot, despite the very strong chances it's going to be thrown away, because it's fun to be a participant in history. It's kind of cool. I want to trade experience stories with my friends at work... "OMG, the election judge was KRAZY..." "...I had to wait 2 hours!..." "...It was no problem, except for the homeless man who thought it was the methadone line."
So.... I'm off to vote. Yay democracy!

Here's the Rock the Vote warning email that something might be "up":

Hi everyone,

Thanks to all of you who checked your registration status in NY State and sent us an update. We were appalled when we learned that the state of New York was so far behind in processing all the registration forms they received, but with your help, we’ll do everything we can to make sure each of you and really, all new voters, get on the voter rolls and are able to vote in November.

Here is the latest:
After lots of conversations with lawyers today, I have learned that there was a huge backlog of data-entering the registration forms at the county level in NY, but as of Thursday the 23rd at 9:30pm the last form in New York County was supposedly entered, and the other counties should be caught up as well!
I really want to believe this, but our votes are too important to leave to chance. So, here is what we need you to do:

1—CALL THE COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS ASAP. If you turned in a registration form, you should be in your county database now. The person answering the phone can look you up and confirm that you are in fact registered. There is a lag between the county database and the public voter look-up on the website, so you need to call. Here is the list of phone numbers: http://www.elections.state.ny.us/CountyBoards.html

2—LET US KNOW THE RESULTS. Please email vote@rockthevote.com and let us know if you are still NOT on the voter rolls according to the county. This will allow us to identify any problems by county, as well as follow up on your status and ensure you can vote. When you email us, please put your COUNTY as the subject of the email.

If you sent your completed registration form in to a NY State elections office by October 10th, you will be able to vote on Election Day. We'll help make sure of it.

Thanks,
Heather & the Rock the Vote team
P.S. I am emailing all of you because you used Rock the Vote to get your voter registration form. But this backlog in processing registration forms affects all new registrants in NYS. Feel free to pass this message along to others you know who might be having similar problems--we'll help them too.