But I am going to miss stuff like this
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Voting
Did you vote on Tuesday? I did. Had an interesting experience:
The polls opened at 6:30am. I try to leave for work around 7 each morning, so I figured I would just stop on my way. I pulled into the elementary school parking lot only to find the (roughly) 150 parking spaces almost full. I had to drive around a few minutes just to get a spot. I'm thinking this does not bode well for me leaving here in a timely fashion.
On my way in, I was offered a card with the Republican ticket on it (I assume it just listed all the Republicans I was allowed to vote for). I politely refused, one because I rarely take handouts from random people, and two, because if I wanted to vote Republican, I'm pretty sure the ballot would list the party affiliation of each candidate. (It did, by the way). I was also greeted by a nice lady holding up a rather large McCain/Palin sign. No Democrat stuff anywhere. Weird. Ohio is still a "swing" state, right? Oh well. In I go.
Holy crap there's a lot of people in here. Well, like a good little boy, I go and stand in the back of the (incredibly long) line. I stay there for a couple minutes, and the people in front of me start asking if they are in the right line. What? There's more than one line? Oooh - maybe I don't have to stand in line after all. ("Wow, Ben, what makes you think that you wouldn't have to stand in line while these people do?" you might say. Is "I'm better than them" acceptable?) A couple of guys go up to a lady sitting behind a table, ask her something, she points, and they go inside the gym. The gym is where the voting takes place - my line, however, is not even close to getting in the gym. Well, now I have to check it out. I go to said table and ask the lady where I'm supposed to stand. I tell her my street name, she finds it on the sheet, and tells me that I am better than those people. I know, right? Well, that's what I heard in my mind. The actual words were more like "You're in that line" as she points to the gym. Woohoo! So I find the correct line. Instead of waiting for 75 people, now I have to wait for about 20. We're making progress.
A nice lady walks up to me and informs me that if I'd like to fill out a paper ballot, that I can just walk up to the table now, sign in, and vote. I smile, say "Oh, ok" and stay in line for electronic voting. Wait, what? For some reason, I just stood in line. Did I think my vote would somehow count more if I did it electronically? Or that it would count sooner? I really don't know. It was weird. Did these people in my line know something I didn't and that's why they were waiting to vote electronically? You'd be surprised what goes through my head sometimes.
A man walks up behind me, the same lady give him the same speech, and he responds with "Really? Ok, let's do that." He walks up, signs his name, they give him a ballot, point him to a booth, and now he's voting. And I'm still 20th in line. Apparently seeing somebody else do it let me know it was "ok", so I decide to give this a shot. Sure enough, I walk up, show my driver's license, sign my name, get my ballot, and go vote.
I was in and out in 30 minutes, which, seeing some news stories, is pretty good for this election. Turns out it could have been about 3 minutes. I guess I know for next time. You know what, though? Four years from now, I'll forget this ever happened and probably do the same thing.
PS: for those of you that left a comment on the last post about liking Fantastic Contraption, I only missed one. I pretty much went with the "guys will like it, girls won't" - it almost worked.
The polls opened at 6:30am. I try to leave for work around 7 each morning, so I figured I would just stop on my way. I pulled into the elementary school parking lot only to find the (roughly) 150 parking spaces almost full. I had to drive around a few minutes just to get a spot. I'm thinking this does not bode well for me leaving here in a timely fashion.
On my way in, I was offered a card with the Republican ticket on it (I assume it just listed all the Republicans I was allowed to vote for). I politely refused, one because I rarely take handouts from random people, and two, because if I wanted to vote Republican, I'm pretty sure the ballot would list the party affiliation of each candidate. (It did, by the way). I was also greeted by a nice lady holding up a rather large McCain/Palin sign. No Democrat stuff anywhere. Weird. Ohio is still a "swing" state, right? Oh well. In I go.
Holy crap there's a lot of people in here. Well, like a good little boy, I go and stand in the back of the (incredibly long) line. I stay there for a couple minutes, and the people in front of me start asking if they are in the right line. What? There's more than one line? Oooh - maybe I don't have to stand in line after all. ("Wow, Ben, what makes you think that you wouldn't have to stand in line while these people do?" you might say. Is "I'm better than them" acceptable?) A couple of guys go up to a lady sitting behind a table, ask her something, she points, and they go inside the gym. The gym is where the voting takes place - my line, however, is not even close to getting in the gym. Well, now I have to check it out. I go to said table and ask the lady where I'm supposed to stand. I tell her my street name, she finds it on the sheet, and tells me that I am better than those people. I know, right? Well, that's what I heard in my mind. The actual words were more like "You're in that line" as she points to the gym. Woohoo! So I find the correct line. Instead of waiting for 75 people, now I have to wait for about 20. We're making progress.
A nice lady walks up to me and informs me that if I'd like to fill out a paper ballot, that I can just walk up to the table now, sign in, and vote. I smile, say "Oh, ok" and stay in line for electronic voting. Wait, what? For some reason, I just stood in line. Did I think my vote would somehow count more if I did it electronically? Or that it would count sooner? I really don't know. It was weird. Did these people in my line know something I didn't and that's why they were waiting to vote electronically? You'd be surprised what goes through my head sometimes.
A man walks up behind me, the same lady give him the same speech, and he responds with "Really? Ok, let's do that." He walks up, signs his name, they give him a ballot, point him to a booth, and now he's voting. And I'm still 20th in line. Apparently seeing somebody else do it let me know it was "ok", so I decide to give this a shot. Sure enough, I walk up, show my driver's license, sign my name, get my ballot, and go vote.
I was in and out in 30 minutes, which, seeing some news stories, is pretty good for this election. Turns out it could have been about 3 minutes. I guess I know for next time. You know what, though? Four years from now, I'll forget this ever happened and probably do the same thing.
PS: for those of you that left a comment on the last post about liking Fantastic Contraption, I only missed one. I pretty much went with the "guys will like it, girls won't" - it almost worked.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)