Voting Day

I went to the post office this afternoon, and as I was leaving, the news said we had four more hours until the polls closed for the election.

Election? Wasn't the primary election in February, when I was driving through Florida after our Caribbean cruise? I didn't even get the voter's sample ballot in the mail to warn me this one was coming up. Then the news said something about Propositions 98 & 99, which reminded me that see-dubya posted something about it last night (can't find it now) on Michelle Malkin's blog.

Prop 98 will outlaw eminent domain for private use, and Prop 99 is a stealth attempt to nullify Prop 98. Yes on 98. No on 99.

I drove to the Lutheran church where I always vote, but nobody was in the parking lot, and all the doors were closed. Oh, great.

On my way home from the church, I saw "Polling Place" signs pointing down another street, so I went there. It was on a cul-de-sac in somebody's garage. I asked when they moved to that spot, and they said it was their first time there. Last time, they were in the library. But they couldn't find my name on their list. And my address wasn't in their book. Apparently my side of the main road is in a different precinct from their side of the road.

They looked up the help number and called, and I could hear the digitized voice asking the man to punch one number after another to weave his way through their system. While he was waiting for an answer, he took me over to a map, which showed that my side of the road voted at an elementary school a mile away.

So I went there. Inside the door, the lady asked for my name, and she couldn't find me in her book. One of the other workers said I might be voting on the other side of the room. Two different precincts vote in the same room. It's very confusing.

Over on the other side, they looked me up, but I wasn't in that book either. I was starting to wonder if I had disappeared from the voting registry altogether.

When those people started looking for my address in their other book, the man from the first precinct came over to get me. They had found my name in the pink pages. I told them it's because I'm a girl.

They gave me a paper ballot (yay, paper!) and a black pen and sent me off to vote. There were a few choices to make, like my unopposed Congressman and some local positions I had no idea about. Then there were the two propositions. I voted for my Congressman (he's good) and the Yes and No on 98 and 99, and then I was done.

So much driving and rejection for three little votes, but those votes could be crucial. I wear my "I Voted" sticker proudly.