Civic Duty

Saturday morning, H and I stood in line at the Arlington Courthouse, along with hundreds of other people, to cast our vote. The polls opened at 8:30 a.m., and we were in line by 8:40 a.m. There were hundreds of people in line before us, some of whom started the line before 6 a.m. It took us an hour and a half just to get into the building, and then another hour and a half once we were in to get to the polling machines. We were fortunate, as we got to the back of the line, to meet a really nice couple in front of us and we spent the entire time talking to them. Carl and Karen are a 30-something African-American couple, and he is Navy. His charm and incredibly quick wit made the time seem to go by much faster. He didn’t say exactly what his job was (except to say that if he told us he’d have to kill us…yeah, you know that old excuse), but he has met almost the entire cast of characters in this election drama, and it was fun to hear/see him imitate Cheney, McCain, Rumsfeld, Powell, and others. He was not disrespectful of them, just funny.

The people in line were very patient, and the poll workers were very pleasant and helpful. In all, there was an air of excitement about this election that I have never seen. When we got into the voting room, there were four electronic machines and three paper voting stations. All four of us chose the paper ballot. Then, when we left, H and I went back outside to check on the line. It was even longer than when we started, and the wait estimate was four hours. Talk about dedication! We think the line was so long because the Courthouse was the only place you could vote early, and Saturday was the last day to do so. On Election Day, there are many polling places, so I’m not sure the lines will be very bad. We’ll find out later.

I imagine that I will be up late tonight, waiting to see the results.