Voting in the Evening Was Quick and Painless
Nov 4th, 2008 by Alex
When I arrived at my polling center this morning at 6:50am there were approximately 500-600 people in line. I’m thrilled that it was such a great turnout, but I still couldn’t believe it. The parking lot was beyond full, so I opted to leave and try my luck after work. I’m not sure whether the folks that live around me will be working the late shift or whether they just enjoy standing around waiting. I’m also not sure if they decreased the number of polling centers in the area, bringing more people in to one place. Who knows.
I don’t understand what the obsession is with getting to the polls at 4:30am so that you can be the first to vote. The votes ought to be tabulated the same way whether you vote at 7am or 7pm. Hell, if the Diebold system is going to crap out it’ll probably do it during the morning rush.
I don’t listen to the radio or watch CNN at work most days, so I get my news secondhand from whoever happens to be talking. One guy waited 45 minutes. One woman waited nearly two hours. Not a good average. Ugh.
I returned to the church (yes, separation of church and state apparently does not apply on Election Day) around 6pm — dreading standing out in the rain waiting and starting to second guess my decision to wait — and found the parking lot nearly empty. Sweet. I walked in, provided my ID to one of four volunteers waiting around, then went and cast my vote on one of the dozen Diebold machines. Simple and painless; I think it took me longer to walk in and out from my car than it did to vote.
So yes, I voted.
I’m really glad this thing is just about over with. I’m tired of hearing about it. I’m tired of reading about it. I might turn on the TV later tonight to see what’s happening, but I doubt I’ll be staying up to find out (nor will I be losing sleep either way). I just hope that when people’s preferred candidate loses, they’ll be quick to get behind the new guy. If not, I’ll just have to bury my head under the pillows for another few weeks until all the whining dies down.
I have this image of someone getting up at 4:30 in the morning, getting in line at the polling place, the doors open and they get checked in, then they go to the voting machine, select “write in” and type in “FIRST!” on their ballot.
I got there 10 minutes before it opened and was in and out in 45 minutes. Not a big problem. My wife went at 4 pm and walked right up with no wait.