Voting

[pameladean]

Raphael and I just got back from voting. It's a warm, overcast day, full of rustling yellow leaves that sound like rain. We'd come prepared with a water bottle, books, a bit of leftover Hallowe'en candy, and some Luna bars. There was no line, only a brief wait because all the little booths were filled and I hadn't noticed the tables one could vote at instead until the election worker told me. But I was voter #1359, and I've never had a four-digit number before.

I'm not much for election paraphernalia even if I'm very excited about a candidate, which in any case is not the norm. We have no yard sign, bumper sticker, button, or T-Shirt. But when I got home, I wrote "OBAMA 08" on a Post-It note, carefully peeled my "I Voted" sticker off my shirt, and planted it on the Post-It. I think I'll want to keep it around.

I always thought that the first black president would be a Republican. I figured they had all the big racists, since the Voting Rights Act, and would be able to stomp them flat if they really wanted to have a black candidate, whereas a Democrat would be battered by the full force of nastiness available. Sometimes it's nice to be wrong.

P.

Comments

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

Don't claim your election until the votes are officially counted. The local right-wing is already claiming fraud (i.e., known negroes and other undesirables voting).

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

I thought the same thing -- also, that the first woman president might be a Republican, especially when Liddy Dole was looking seriously at running.

Fortunately that stopped (Liddy Dole scares me now), but Sarah Palin ain't the first anything (first Alaskan, maybe?), so I'm not exactly worried about her.

I mean, knock on wood.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

It all evens out. Republicans are claimed to suppress votes while the Democrats are accused of voting feloniously.

Here in the Democratic machine town of Philadelphia, there have been incidents including some jack-booted, beret-wearing scary guys with nightsticks claiming to be "security" at a polling place (I have the YouTube video on my LJ). A number of Republicans aver that their poll watchers have been unceremoniously booted out. Our polling place seems okay -- I trust the committeeman, even if he is a Democrat (smile), to oversee a clean election. The one across the street is probably okay, too -- the committeeman there is a local businessman and a solid citizen.

I hope whoever wins wins by enough that no one will be tempted to whine for a recount. We need the cleansing of an apparently fair election.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Don't count your chickens. She told Tina Fey not to retire her Palin costume.

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

Yay for voting.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

I always thought that the first black president would be a Republican.

Me too. I am utterly gobsmacked. Particularly since NBC News just interviewed a 92-year-old woman who was part of Bloody Sunday in Selma and just voted for Obama. GOBSMACKED.

[pameladean]

Oh, wonderful!

P.

[pameladean]

I'd be very surprised if she didn't run for some kind of national office after this. I'm also interested, though I doubt I'd ever vote for her, to see what she's like without having to try to stay within McCain's views.

I don't think she'd do well even so, but of course that is a matter of very hypothetical opinion at this point.

P.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile: Minnesota has had three Jewish Senators in a row, and if Franken beats Coleman will have had four in a row. This would once have seemed rather unlikely. I've read that in the 1950s, the Minneapolis AAA branch didn't accept Jewish members.

And I can't remember if either of my state legislators is gay, because that kind of thing doesn't inspire much talk these days.

[thinkum]

Oddly, I've never thought to look and see what my voter number was, when I fed my paper ballot into the (as Jerry calls it) "Vote Sucker 2000" machine.

We've never been much for displaying candidate or party advertising, either (*supportive* advertising, that is -- we'll enthusiastically display our disgust for stupid laws and policies). We did fly the national flag out on our balcony, though, until the local polling stations closed...

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

NBC has called that race for Hagan.