My First Time

No, no, it isn't THAT kind of post. ;) This is about my first time at the polls.

I was 18 and registered to vote in time for the 2000 elections. I went to university an hour and a half away from my polling location, knew nothing of absentee ballots, and had a bunch of professors on that Tuesday who refused to allow me to miss my classes to go vote. They believed I should have been more responsible and applied for an absentee ballot beforehand. Perhaps I should have. I missed out on that election, but I stayed up all night with my roommate watching the election results and waiting with bated breath for the announcement of our next president. Little did we know at the time that we would be sitting that way for quite some time while the votes were recounted over and over.

In 2004 I had moved to a different state, but this time I was smarter. I applied for an absentee ballot two months before election day. November 1st rolled around, we were voting the next day...and no absentee ballot. I finally received my ballot the afternoon of November 2nd when the mail was delivered. I scurried to the nearest fax machine, paid a dollar to send it, and was told by the clerk, "I don't know if that'll be counted." I said, "It's worth a shot, isn't it??" He faxed my ballot into my polling place. Three weeks later, I received an official letter of rejection from the state saying that my ballot had not been counted because it hadn't arrived in time. At that moment, I decided that I would change my registration depending on where I would be by the 2008 election.

In 2006, after I had been accepted to my PhD program and knew I'd be hanging around here for several more years, I began the process of establishing my citizenship in this state. I changed my driver's license, tag registration, and voter registration to this state so that I would be capable of voting when the election finally came around again. It took longer than it feels like it should have just because I had some issues to work through with my citizenship in my home state--ah, bureaucracy. When I finally had in hand my new voter registration card, I became extremely excited about the upcoming presidential election.

I woke up this morning around 6 a.m., took my shower, got ready, and went to my polling place. I arrived around 6:45, there was no parking and the line wrapped around the building...almost twice. I parked about three blocks away, but I was happy to do so--I was enlivened by the sheer numbers of voters so early in the morning. The doors opened, the line inched forward. I read a couple of pages in my book, and next thing I knew: I was at the side of the building rather than the back. The line continued to move very quickly; I was in the doors by 7:15. Probably the longest line was the one inside to receive my ballot. I watched closely as the officials chastised people for using the wrong pen on the ballot. Our ballot consisted of incomplete arrows pointing to the names of the candidates and amendments. When casting the vote, the voter was supposed to draw a line from the end of the arrow to the front of the arrow, completing the center. Apparently only a specific type of pen would show up on the machines; people were not using the provided pens and were instead relying on the Bic pens in their purses or pockets. As they were corrected and chastised, I made mental notes. I kept my eyes peeled for open desk space so that I didn't stand around in confusion like so many others; I didn't want to gum up the works. I received my ballot from two very sweet old ladies (one of whom told me her daughter has my name and called it a "good Southern name," lol) and off I quickly went to the closest empty desk space. I drew my arrows, voted yes on most of the amendments because of their usefulness (and because I fortunately researched them before heading out to the polls). I got up, got in the line to cast my ballot, and then put the ballot in the machine as number 160. There was another machine in the building that was up in the 150s. It was only 7:40 in the morning. The polls had barely been opened at this one place had already reached over 300 ballots, and there were at least 300 more people outside when I left.

I have to say, my heart filled with happiness to see that. About a quarter of the voters in my line were people from my age group, which is the most scrutinized age group in this (or any) election. I was happy to see so many young people. I know all my friends have voted, and I'm extremely proud of us.

Time to watch the election results. I'm going to a party tonight to color in a map of the United States with red and blue pens. It'll be fun. :) I'm excited that by this time tomorrow, we'll have a new president. I do hope my guy wins, but I'm frankly just happy to be done with George Bush.

Good job everyone! I think this will have been a great election year based on turn-out. :)