November 4, 2008

GET OUT AND VOTE!

I was at my polling place at 8:00 AM this morning, and the line was way down the block. Nobody I spoke to had ever seen anything like it. I've been voting in Ward 1, Precinct 1 for twenty four years, and I have never seen any line at all.

I did hear that there were a number of glitches with the voter lists. One neighbor told me that he is registered, he got the post card from the Election Commission Telling him where to vote, but his name was not on the list. He had to use a provisional ballot. Several people had the same experience. There was election staff on hand to take care of this sort of problem, had they had their hands full. Word is that phone lines to the Election Commission are jammed.

The weather is fine and almost everyone was in a good mood. I was there as a member of my Democratic Ward Committee holding signs for Obama and No on Question one at the 150 foot mark, and a couple of crusty old farts flipped me off, but I smiled and waved. A truck full of Joe the plumber types drove by shouting "Vote yes on 2! Yes on two! Yes on 2!" I really didn't expect to heat that until after noon...

Mayor Simmons stopped by to check out the scene and hand out her newsletter to the folks in line. You can see video of her talking about this election if you click play above.