Voting accomplished

Voting in my small town is still somewhat low-tech. We were handed a paper ballot with two arrows pointing in opposing directions next to each candidate’s name. All we had to do was fill in the space between the arrows and stick the paper ballot into the scanning machine. I stuck mine in the machine with a prayer. Let’s hope the things are functioning properly.

There were not too many people there when I voted. A few folks on their way to work and one jogger. There was a terribly bored looking police officer sitting waaaaay over in the corner of the school cafeteria sipping her Dunkin Donuts coffee. Not a threatening bone in her body.

Out by the street, there was a crowd of people holding signs for local candidates (one Democrat is running unopposed), exactly two Bush/Cheney signs and NOT ONE Kerry/Edwards sign. I’m not going to suggest that this means anything in particular, though. The local bumper stickers run for Kerry about 3 to 1. Still, it was disappointing that there wasn’t at least one person out there with a Kerry/Edwards sign.

I ferried 6 people to the polls this morning. One was a young person with her leg in a cast. She was an enthusiastic Kerry supporter. The others were older folks who were discreet about their intentions. One woman, though, told me that her very first vote was cast for Truman. She said that was an exciting election much like this one and since, at her age, she’s taking each year as it comes, this election would be a nice end-note to her voting career—although she still thinks she’ll be around to have another whack at voting for that nice John Kerry in four years.

Well, now we wait and bite nails.

To help pass the long hours till we know something, Steve over at Absit Invidia is doing a non-partisan Election Day Blogathon to benefit the Jimmy Fund. It’s a wonderful organization dedicated to helping children and adults with cancer at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Please consider donating. You can be sure that Steve will give you a great return on whatever you donate.