One Matron, One Vote

I went and advance-voted today at the branch of the county library near me. I had heard of long lines, even for early voting, so I went during the school day. Mom and Dad are in town, so I didn't have to take Hank with me. There were a ton of people there! If this is early voting, I wonder what Election Day will be like. I only had to wait in line for twenty minutes or so, and I took that time to study my fellow citizens and try to figure out their voting preferences.

Strangely, in Georgia you're not allowed to wear t-shirts or buttons that endorse a candidate to the polling place. Today I happened to be wearing my Obama shirt from MoveOn.org--the one that has his giant face on it--and I had to zip him under my vest.

I think it's a silly law. As though you could apply undue pressure to your fellow voters with your wardrobe choices. Then again, look at the size of that face. So we went covert, Barack and me. Deep in enemy territory! True, I couldn't see who they were voting for, but I was NOT getting an Obama vibe from that crowd. And indeed, Laura told me that they talked about the election in her class, and she was the only kid in favor of Obama, and she said, "I felt left out, Mom!" I could have given her a big talk about how democracy is invigorated by difference of opinion, or maybe I could have discussed specific policies of Obama's that we believe in, but I was tired. So I just said, "Well, on November 5, they will have backed the loser." Not my greatest parenting moment.

So voting went smoothly--there were 15 of those Diebold machines, the ones that don't print out a paper record, so who knows. I don't mean for this to become a political blog, but the suspense is killing me over here. Could I just wake up and have it be November 5? And in the meantime, it gives me pleasure to know that I canceled Frenemy Neighbor's McCain vote. Sorry to be such a bitch, but that's where I'm at right now. She actually called my neighbor two houses over--the crazy Ron Paul supporter conspiracy nut who told me that the U.S. Government crashed the planes into the WTC--and said, "I see that you took down your Ron Paul sign. I have some extra McCain/Palin signs if you would like one." He told her that he was voting for the REALLY crazy Constitutionalist party candidate, and she was disappointed. I'm sorry I didn't get to hear those two go at it. Good times in the cul-de-sac. And go vote!