Election Day: I Voted

I decided to walk over to the school where I vote, it's not far. It takes about 10 minutes. Lately, for exercise, I've been trying to walk as often as I can and NOT take the car. It's actually a lot harder to do than you'd think. In your mind, you kind of figure a trip takes this long or that long depending on where you're headed, but you notice, you tend to base everything on driving, rarely on walking. Sometimes, although the distance isn't that long to a place, I don't walk because I'm vague on how long it actually will take.

So I walked out and then realized I hadn't brought my wallet for ID, went back got it, then walked the 10 minute walk through the neighborhood, past pretty houses, great fall foliage (still hanging on) and patchy sunshine and clouds.

Glad I walked. You see so much more and other people walking nod at you and you actually feel like you live in a neighborhood. I got to talk to three people (two women and one man) holding signs on sticks near the entrance to the school. One was a union guy in overalls and a hardhat holding a Kerry/Edwards sign.

They told me there weren't long lines, not to worry. I chatted with the women, they asked me where I got my hat (the black fur Elmer Fudd hunter earflap hat). It was about 45ish out and since I had a cold anyway, I figured a hat was a good idea. It was.

I walked up to the school which is under construction, although the building where we vote was not, and noticed there was no lines.

It's Boston, no surprise. We're not a swing state by a long shot. Our Republican governor didn't even do much campaigning in our very Democratic state, but instead was in New Hampshire trying to help Bush here.

Inside the school, they checked my registration on their list, did NOT need my ID and I voted. We vote on paper ballots that look a bit like SAT forms with little white bubbles that you color in black to indicate your choice. So the booths are only little desks with side flaps so no one can see what you're doing, a black felt pen on a string.

Afterwards, you feed them into a machine that looks like a scanner and sucks the forms up, doesn't give you anything back.

Outside, in the hall, I asked the policeman, a big guy eating a bagel and drinking coffee, if there had been long lines. "About 130 people were in line here at 7:00am. They started lining up around 6:20." Glad I missed it.