Lane von Herzen: Inquiries About the Disposition of Lane MacWilliams' Ballot in the 2022 Midterm Elections

My Third Novel's Conclusion, My Heartbreak

My heart begins to break when I think about completing this particular book -- because this narrative has sustained me like no other story I've known. It's both more personal and more universal than my other works. But beyond memory and archetype, it's a cri-de-coeur about needing to become the person one is destined to be. And in the writing, I have met my own life's work, my own fated journey -- having the sense all the while that the pages are suffused with a resonance, an energy, an electrified field that defies explanation. Writers hope and pray to be overtaken by a work in this way -- to be conscripted into passionate service of a profound story. To experience it even once in a lifetime seems a great privilege. I still have several months before this novel is complete, and this constitutes my reprieve. Because I'm not ready for the beauty to end.

Monday, November 28, 2022

Inquiries About the Disposition of Lane MacWilliams' Ballot in the 2022 Midterm Elections

Email sent to: registrar@smcacre.org. From: lanemacwilliams@gmail.com. Date: November 28, 2022 at 6:39 AM

Regarding: Information Concerning My Ballot in the 2022 Midterm Elections

Dear Registrar:

I am concerned that I did not receive the usual confirmation email and text regarding the receipt of my ballot in the 2022 Midterm Elections this month.

Will you please confirm for me whether my ballot was received and counted?

If there was any interference with this process, will you please inform me about the nature of that problem?

Thank you very much for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Lane MacWilliams

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Email sent to: registrar@smcacre.org. From: kpmacw@gmail.com. Date: November 25, 2022 at 10:26 AM

Re: Fwd: November 8, 2022, General Election, Ballot Counted

Dear Registrar - thank you very much for my below ballot confirmation.

When I dropped off my ballot at the Portola Valley polling station on November 8th, I also dropped off my wife's ballot (Lane MacWilliams, CC'd in this email).

However, she did not receive a similar confirmation that her ballot was received and counted.

Can you please communicate to us whether her ballot was counted?

Thank you for your great work :)

Kenneth MacWilliams

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This statement is to formally attest that I, Kenneth Paul MacWilliams, dropped off my wife's ballot in the Midterm Elections at the Portola Valley, CA Town Hall Polling Station on Sunday, November 6, 2022.

My wife, Lane MacWilliams, prepared her ballot together with me for several hours that day at our home, after which I dropped off three ballots at Portola Valley Town Hall: that of my wife, that of my son Graham MacWilliams, and that of my own.

While I received email and text notifications on November 8th and 9th that my ballot had been received, my wife did not.

My wife's concern over possible FBI obstruction of her ballot arose yesterday, Thanksgiving Day, when our son Duncan MacWilliams, asked her repeatedly and without apparent justification whether she had voted in the Midterm Elections. Our son Duncan knows that my wife and I always vote, so his questioning seemed out of place. My wife believes it is likely that Duncan's queries were prompted by his FBI handler, who may have had inside knowledge of the agency's interference with her voting process.

I did find Duncan's repeated questioning to be extremely odd, but Duncan has not disclosed to us the nature of his relationship to the FBI.

I have written to San Mateo County personnel to inquire about what happened to my wife's ballot, but I have not yet received a response.

I hereby certify that the foregoing is true and correct.