Election Day 2008: One Small Town Experience

It was an unseasonably warm November morning as I stood in the longest line I've ever stood in on an election day. This is the first time I ever had to stand in line for more than ten minutes in order to cast my vote. I waited about thirty minutes today; which is WAY better than the time lots of other folks will have to spend standing in line today. I am lucky. I live in a semi-rural small town.

My gal and I arrived at our polls five to ten minutes before they were supposed to open; about 6:20 a.m. We had to park on some grass just off the entrance drive and just east of the volley ball court. The twenty car parking lot of the community center was completely full; and another twenty or so cars and trucks were parked across all the grassy areas surrounding the little building; it was a mixture of sort of lined up and haphazardly scattered.

The door of the community center was centered in the eastern facing long side of the rectangular building. The line of waiting voters filed south, wrapped itself around the shorter southern side, and then wound back up the longer western side. As we stepped to our place at the current end of the line I could see straight through the building's windows to the front door on the other side. A dozen poll workers were milling around inside making all their last minute preparations.

The line grew at a steady trickle behind us; one person every few minutes. People smiled and chatted, as did we, while cars gently navigated the tight space between the people in line and the bumpers of parked cars. The couple in front of us were friendly as they corralled and carried, respectively, their two young boys; the woman behind us exchanged pleasantries. I checked my cell phone for the time; 6:29 by Virgin Mobile, and a single minute later I noticed people filing in.

The line moved slowly forward.

I'm grateful for the fine weather. Our skies had thin and scattered clouds as the blue-black of night gave way to the white and orange of sunrise. Clouds that appeared ghostly white in the first light took on deepening gray hues toward the horizon as the sky went yellow-orange. I was in the building before the orb actually rose.

The crowd inside was formed into six varying lines. Two districts voted here. Each district had two registration lines; A-K and L-Z; and each district had a third line leading to their machines.

We had been misled by the worker at the door, a young woman who claimed she had come in from Salt Lake City, Utah in order to help with poll work. We started out in the wrong district's line; then, thankfully, a poll worker let us cut into the proper line so we wouldn't have to wait again.

We made a point of telling the poll worker that we had been directed to the wrong line, which caused another person in our correct line to speak up and say that they had also been misdirected. On our words, the poll worker went to check into it.

By this point the building was becoming overly crowded and the poll workers started slowing the flow of traffic into the building.

After signing in, we waited about five minutes to get to a machine. I chatted with a poll worker as the line was frozen and neither one of us could progress. I asked if anyone had asked for a paper ballot yet. The worker replied, no.

I had considered voting on a paper ballot. I prefer the idea of a hard copy record that was filled out with my own hand, but I'm too unclear on how paper ballots are treated. I've heard they fall under the designation of "provisional" ballot and I've heard that provisional ballots can be easily legally discarded by an election official. Since it is important to me that I have a sense of security (or hope) that my ballot will be counted, I stuck with the machine; even though Diebold does not fill me with confidence.

The paper ballots I saw stacked in the background were large and long; as was the ballot on my machine. Five state issues, a handful of local issues, two national representatives, two state representatives and a mess of judges and county seats.

The machine seemed to accurately record all my selections, and the printer tape at the side seemed to print my ballot accurately, so I am hopeful.

I voted for taxes to benefit education.

I voted to allow bonds for nature parks and conservation projects.

I voted for personal property rights.

I voted according to my conscience; alng the lines of my hopes for positive, progressive, intelligent change.


I Voted Today !!


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