Election Day

Happy Election Day! Or should I say, "Happy Election Month"? From the sounds of it, we might have another long battle to determine our next president. And that means MORE politics, pundits, and opinions, and way too much press coverage. I want the madness to stop. . . . no more coverage of what Bush said and then what Kerry said in response to Bush. MAKE IT ALL GO AWAY!

In effort to make the election coverage go away, I did my civic duty and went to vote earlier today. I had heard rumors that people were waiting in 1/2-hour lines in Ithaca at 8:00 AM. I was voting close to 10:00. My polling place was relatively quiet when I entered. No person or people standing outside with last minute campaign slogans, no one questioning my right to be there and if I was really registered to vote, and no one taking exit polls. Guess New York isn't that news worthy, huh?

I waited a total of 4 minutes from the time I stepped into the building to the time I went into the booth. There were three people in front of me. There was one voting booth in the whole place-- the old-fashioned kind with the levers. It felt so retro/nostalgic to be using a voting booth as opposed to computer ballots or punch cards. With this machine on hand, I had good confidence that my vote was going to be counted. I did notice too, that there was a 3-minute time limit that I could be in the booth. No eenie-meenie-minnie-moe to help me make decisions on the lesser items on the ballot. That would take too long.

I will admit, that I did find myself getting a bit misty-eyed as I was waiting in line and soaking in all that the 4 minutes held. I felt empowered. I felt proud that our country votes the way we do (despite all of its problems). I was happy that things were civilized, peaceful, and that my vote really does matter. My mind went to Rich being in Iraq, serving our country, and attempting to help a new population of people come to love democracy as much as we do . . . or at the very least encouraging them to give it a try.

I also was witness to a citizen educating a foreigner just how we do things over in the US of A. My guess is that this woman is an international student at Cornell and he was somehow her professor, mentor, or older and wiser friend. She watched him sign his name and then went into the booth with him. Less than three minutes later, they walked out of the booth with smiles on their faces. I think he let her pull the lever that opens the curtain at the end. That's my favorite part, anyway. To know at that moment, when your hand is on the lever and you hear the curtain open and the levers reset, you then know that you have spoken to the rest of the country, to the rest of the world how you would like to see the next four years. Yes, my voice and all I have to say is reduced to a few names on a ballot, and half of the country may not listen anyway, but some people don't even get that much.

And you know what, I was smiling when I left the booth too.