Election day 2006 (#249, Topic P)

So, the first Tuesday in November of even-numbered years, election day, today, finally came. I woke up, at 6:15, to NPR's rebroadcast of last night's speeches by the Campaigner-in-Chief (#244), warning his audience, over and over again, that a Democratic majority means higher taxes, less national security, etc. Earlier, I read that the CiC invariably goes to venues where his views are fully endorsed ("preaching to the choir"?), and NPR's rebroadcast confirmed this loud and clear -- after each of the CiC's utterances, there was a round of loud yells. Varying from my morning routine, I decided to have a quick breakfast and, with my wife, go to our new polling place (we moved to our retirement community in April 2005) early; we were there a few minutes before 7:00, when the polling place was scheduled to open. To my great surprise, there was already a long line, perhaps 150+, waiting for the door to open. I was equally surprised that the entire process -- from the waiting line to a waiting station (where seating was provided, a very thoughtful idea), to a two-person station where my identity was verified and a voting card issued, to a long corridor where I was directed by a poll worker to one of the several rooms where voting machines were stationed, to being escorted to one of these machines by an election judge and being briefed on how to use it before leaving me alone -- took barely 15 minutes. The machine was no different from the ones I was accustomed a decade or so ago (I think our governor did not want electronic voting machines in 2006), so it offered no problem. Since I have also read the sample ballot earlier, I was able to cast my vote reasonably fast -- I was done by 7:25. On the way out toward the parking place, there were still people handing out flyers and such. A young man, well dressed without a coat (the temperature was in the low 50s), but with a sticker on his jacket bearing a candidate's name, was among them. His face was vaguely familiar, so I approached him and said, pointing to the candidate's name on his jacket: "I attended one of his meetings." To my surprise, he said "I am he." So, I said: "I voted for you," and he responded with a "Thank you" and shook my hand. He was a candidate for Maryland's attorney general -- one of the top positions being contested today. With his being here in person, early in the morning, it does suggest that our retirement community has clout. Indeed, yesterday, Al Gore, presidential candidate representing the Democratic party in 2000 (in which he had more popular votes than the declared winner, the current CiC), was at a rally in our retirement community, on behalf of his party's nominee for the U.S. Senate (whom I also voted today). This will be a busy evening for the media, particularly as polls begin to close beginning at 7 EST (with Indiana and Kentucky, whose polls close at 6 CST [=7 EST], leading the pack). We'll see whether Democrats could pick up 15 seats in the House and 6 seats in the Senate to wrestle control from the Republicans.