My Day at the Polls
While trying to avoid the returns so not to jinx my candidate, let me tell you of my experience of casting the deciding vote….
I leave early or so I thought. But before that I dawdle a little at the house. I have a quick breakfast as it’s been proven that having a breakfast can help you lose weight. It’s nothing fancy, but it will jump start my day. Seven o’clock and I will be in and out in no time.
I pull around the corner by the polling place. There’s cars up here? U-oh.
I drive by. Seven o’clock and the lines at least two hundred people reaching from the door to very close to the street. I go around the back and find a nice spot that my Mini can fit in; the very first time I experience the magic of having a small car.
It’s ten after and I am in line. While it’s not cold, the morning air is still chill and I put on my wool knit cap. I’m not awake and neither are the people surrounding me. Yet, the line slowly moves. As the front of the queue gets serviced the back of the queue accepts more people. The funny thing is the queue’s length doesn’t change. It ends at the same spot.
In line for ten minutes and someone walks by saying it will be another thirty minutes. I start a timer. The girl in front of me says her boyfriend is stuck in a long line also just up the road at the other polling place. She’s texting. I’m texting. The Seed says, “suckas!”
A lady in front of me is a stewardess and another is a nurse with grandkids on her day off. The stewardess worries about getting to work in time. She’s got to go to Dulles. The nurse worries about Obama’s grandmother. She tears up. I tell the stewardess to vote yes on question one. Then she can stop by any precinct and vote. She could’ve gone to theSeed’s polling place and zip out in no time. If we had mobile voting places and any precinct voting. It would be a help for those who have to work especially if we can’t stay in line for hours at a time.
We make it inside, but they’re running the hourly tally. The gentlemen in front of me needs some kind of provisional ballot. The stewardess wants to leave without voting because time’s up, but the nurse persuades people in line to let her jump. The voting line moves without the stewardess. She’s an elderly lady who must have seniority in her airlines because she only flies several times a month on a long haul out of the country. The nurse is jealous. I say the flying would suck. She’s still jealous.
I vote for the winner. And some other dudes. I don’t cast any for the judges. Who are they? My ballot has one red square. Yes on question one, just because the line was long. It could’ve gone the other way if voting was a breeze. No on question two because of my sense of morals not for any monetary gain. I think it will pass without my yea.
Click submit.
I wish I took a picture like Jay, but I take the sticker.
“I voted.”
It was an hour to do, but well worth it. It’s gonna be a very historic day. But work beckons and someone’s got to pay for the billion dollar bail out.
