My darling girlfriend and I got to our polling place around 8:15 this morning (what’s the point of white collar work if you can’t use voting as an excuse to come in late?) and got in the not-too-horrid line. At least it started just inside the door, a big improvement on the line that snaked around the building when she voted there for President in 2004. The “about 20 minutes” someone mentioned when we got there was more like 40, in no small part because the roster table had two people… with books they were keeping in sync.
If you want to find a problem with the open primary system, this might be it. Although these two fellows divided the handing out of Democratic and Republican “ballots”1 between them, they never the less were marking people off as having shown up in both books – presumably to keep someone from coming back later and asking for the other party’s ballot. So no speed advantage there, though it did mean I could easily see the two tally sheets. At the time of my arrival they’d handed out 211 Democratic slips and 53 Republican ones.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but the wait was well worth it for me. Not so I could pick the MUP candidate I did, but because at the age of 37 this makes my first-ever primary vote. I’ve been a registered independent all through my voting life and I came here from a closed primary state, Florida. So this was my first pull of the lever unverifiable button push in a primary.
Which my darling girlfriend promptly canceled out. Teamwork, I tell you!
1 Actually just printed slips of paper that told the kiosk worker which button to press when activating the tools of Satan electronic voting machines.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.
Hmm, guess I just did.
My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.
