Voting absentee in Mississippi is abject terror--endless confusion over whether you've followed the Byzantine instructions correctly or not.

You might think my professional expertise is American history (yeah, sure), but you know what else it is? WRITING CRYSTAL CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS.

I was sent *two* pages of instructions for how to fill out my ballot and application.

What application you ask? The application you have to complete, have witnessed by a notary, and mail SEPARATELY from the ballot itself.

But wait! It gets way more complicated. The application must be SIGNED BY the notary, but the notary does not stamp it.

The ballot on the other hand? The envelope it goes into has to be SIGNED BY the notary, but then also stamped.

The ballot itself features clip art instructing you to fill out the little bubbles completely.

The image shows a hand gripping a pencil.

Then, next to that clip art, text says that you must use a blue or black pen: "Do not use a red pen, felt tip pen or any type of pencil."

Once you've finally voted (you're supposed to complete the ballot in front of the notary witness, which is nutty)--the notary gets to complete their portion of the back of the envelope it goes in.

The notary has to use their seal on the envelope.

Only there's no portion of the envelope that doesn't contain writing. Where should the seal go? Your guess is as good as mine. Today, my notary and I had a long conversation about it.

I requested my absentee ballot before they'd begun mailing it out. As soon as I opened it, I could feel the anxiety rising.

I knew I was going to have to find a notary--I've had to do that before. But I wasn't prepared for how insanely bad the instructions were.

So rather than voting right away, I put it off. It seemed scary. What if I messed it up?

Will my vote count? I sure hope so. But everything about this was so hard.

I thought I might feel celebratory once I handed the ballot over to the postal clerk so I could watch her postmark it by hand.

Instead, I just fretted that my ballot would be disqualified despite my best efforts.