(no subject)

I've voted in the same polling place since I lived in Columbus, apart from one year. It happens that it is across the street from where I live currently, which is about as ridiculously easy as you can get.

Usually I'll go right after work, and maybe have 15 or 20 people in line in front of me. Never a line beyond the door of the tiny gym we vote in, which contains three voting machines for two precincts.

Today, I decided to try to go before work. Got there about 8:00 and could see through the doors that there was a line down the hall before the gym. Except that when I got inside, I realized it went out the opposite doors and halfway down the block.

Wild. I decided to get to work early and then take off early to try to beat the 5:00 rush. Though at least then I'll be able to stand in line in tennis shoes, rather than heels.

There are campaigners everywhere downtown too, standing on corners with signs. I saw a few for Bush yesterday, but none today. Maybe they're all serving as vote challengers. This is bizarre.

(no subject)

Wow. I totally wnat to make this.

After Christmas I guess...

Voted! Finally!

So I got home, changed and tore off across the street to vote. Only to find the line just as long as it was this morning. So I waited in it for an hour and forty minutes. Chatted briefly with the girl behind me, who was also umbrellaless. She'd driven 6 hours to get there in time. I knitted away (if anyone in Columbus was watching the 5:00 news on channel 10, I was the drowned rat knitting behind the anchor. Eventually, I was afraid my wool was going to felt, so I put it away, and acted in a way more becoming to a girl with a broken arm. By the time we got inside, we'd caught up with loud guy, who appeared to be slightly inebriated, and definitely a bit, um, imaginative. I thought he was going to hit the guy behind me, who jokingly suggested he should lay off the bottle after he tried to get everyone riled up about someone stealing his registration. He then claimed that the "Reds" by which he explained he meant "the bin Ladens" were going to come here and refuse to pay taxes for seven years, so they should just pay his for him. He then tried to explain to me that once he got "his petitions" out, he wouldn't be surprised if someone tried to assassinate him, and that even if it wasn't likely he needed to be prepared, because if he let his guard down, that's when he'd be vulnerable.

I then proceeded to accidentally offend the poll worker who got me signed in. I was wearing my WWJJD? (What would Joan Jett Do?) tshirt. So, the conversation went like this.

Her: Oh honey, I like your shirt.
Me: (checking to see what I was wearing) Oh, thank you.
Her: (looking a second time) Oh! Oh! I thought...Oh, I guess I'll let you get away with that.
Me: It's tongue in cheek. (though now, I'm thinking, if it is, do I need to point that out?)
Her: I'll let you get away with that if you sign everything but your husband away to me here (pointing to where I need to sign the voter's register.)
Me: My what?
Her: Everything but your husband.
Me: Oh, that's ok. I don't have one of those.
Her: And your kids.
Me: I don't have those either.

At that point, I swear she gave me a look that said, "you poor childless, godless woman, what man would want you?" But in a nice way of course. She was quite pleasant.

Now off to B & J's for poll watching and John Stewart. We're going to be a peevish bunch later on if this doesn't go our way.

(no subject)

And if you thoght my wait was bad, I just found out that two of my friends waited four and five hours. Some are predicting 70% turnout in parts of Ohio. That rocks. A court decision had to be handed down late in the day to allow alternate balloting (paper) so that people could go home from some precincts in central Ohio at a decent hour. The news showed people still in lines that were at least an hour long and waiting for ballots outside polling places at 9:30! The polls closed at 7:30.

What doesn't rock: the passing of Issue 1, Ohio's constitutional gay marriage ban. Except it goes far enough that it bans all non married couple from receiving benefits. I don't think a lot of people realized what they were voting for. Certainly, I expect Ohio's constitutional amendment will be one of the first up for supreme court challenge, just because of the reach.

What rocks: the passing of the smoking ban. I know a lot of people who didn't support it, but my lungs and head will be much happier.

I'm still holding out hope that Kerry will take Ohio. Last I saw, Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Hamilton (cinci) and Franklin (Columbus) counties weren't reported yet. Heck, there may still be people in line in Franklin County. Florida's results so far are disappointing.

I can't let myself stay up all night.

Please, please, let this all be decided by morning.