Embassy

I sort of had the idea that while we were living abroad, any and all issues I had could be solved by the embassy. Maybe only as quickly and efficiently as back home (which, granted, is neither quick nor efficient), but still.
Nope.
A comedy of errors meant that our paper ballots were in danger of not making it back to the states on time. (We did fill out a federal write-in ballot, specifically created to close the loopholes that make it so hard for overseas voters to vote.) So, last week I was driving, frantically, to the embassy, to try and get the ballots into the official US mail system. After two hours of driving, getting lost, getting turned around, finding a parking space, walking 1/4 mile, and staring down a few security guards, I find out that the embassy closes at 5:30. There is no possible way for me to get those ballots into the building. I can't enter, and bc it's a federal crime for anyone else to even touch my ballot, no one who works there will volunteer to take it in for me.
No joke.
The entire block was heavily secured. I probably could have illegally stopped my car in the middle of the street, left the keys in the ignition, with the door wide open and my wallet on the seat, carrying my cell phone and saunter naked up to the embassy doors, and I would have been safe. No one would have dared to touch me. But I couldn't get into my own embassy after hours.
So let me get this straight - the embassy is open during business hours? They can only help me if I have an emergency between 9:30 am and 5:30 pm M-F, excluding US and MX bank holidays? What if I get mugged? kidnapped? raped? falsely arrested? These are not unusual circumstances for Americans in Mexico (very rare in the area we live, though, don't worry!) but I'm aparantly supposed to wait until business hours to get some help.
God Bless the USA.