Tuesday, November 4, 2008

My Less Than Harrowing Voting Experience

So, I got to work about an hour ago after having voted. It's kind of a no stress situation because my boss is working from home today. I had also cleared my potential tardiness by explaining that I was going to vote in the morning, and would be in whenever, based on the length of the lines.
I woke up, got ready and turned on the TV. Watching CNN, they showed lines of people in Chicago, Manhattan and even Richmond, VA. So I thought, "sweet, this will be good," and readied myself for a long line at George Marshall High School. When I was pulling up, the lot was packed, there was even a news van out front. I was stoked, and was ready to wait with the good Americans of both parties, basking in the historic nature of this election, and what it's implications could mean to the country and the world--to think that this is possibly the embodiment of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. So I walked down the hallway, turned a corner, and saw a line snaking down and back, which was encouraging to me. As is human nature, I stood in the line with the others, assuming it was where we all were supposed to be. Then a kind fellow came and said "this line is for h-m and s-z, the others are inside." Someone questioned about a-g, but no mention of n-r, which is where I would fit, last name-wise. So after a very slight confusion, I walked into the main room, which had two rally long lines, one short one for the a-g's and then there was n-r with nothing. I thought it was weird, but I walked to the front (kinda feeling like I was cheating because everyone else had to wait). One other guy was in my same position, and we were dumbfounded that we were the only two from our letters of the alphabet. So I walked up to the kindly blond lady who was very eager to help. She checked my off her roll and gave me a permit to vote, telling me to go to the girl in the green who would point me where to go. Said girl in green gave me a choice of a paper or electronic ballot, I chose electronic, fearing that a paper ballot could get lost or not scanned properly. Also, it appeared to be a longer line, and as such would take slightly longer.
So I did it, voted for president, senator and congressman, and on a bond issue, got my sticker and left.
That was it. Then I had one of the smoothest drives to work I have experienced. All-in-all, not a bad experience, but I would say that it's a little anti-climactic. Waiting for two years, writing all sorts of irrational rants on my blog, being part of history, and it took only seven minutes. I kinda feel gypped. So that was my experience--see how easy. If I hear of anyone not voting, I will be an angrier white man than John McCain.

2 comments:

Sara said...

1. I'm glad to know that YOU know your rants are occasionally (?) irrational.

2. After all your prodding I never did get registered to vote. Can we still be friends?

mj said...

ha. at our polling location it was the Q-Z's that got off scott free. i was not a Q-Z and thus waited 2 hours and 45 minutes. it was mostly pleasant anyhow, but such a weird situation and i couldn't help wondering if there wasn't a better way to manage the alphabet. democracy + arbitrary bureacracy. what a wonderful country :-).