Get Up and VOTE

Well, my dear hubby rolled out of bed at 5:30 this morning. He wanted to make sure he could get to the polling station by 6AM in case there was a crowd.

This past weekend we've had early voting here in Indiana. I've had friends say the wait was 1.5 hours or so, with lines snaking out the door and around the county-city building downtown. We've had people get upset and lose their tempers (although I'm not sure who or why). I haven't heard of anybody being turned away (yet), but I remembered to bring my photo ID (which is required; thanks to a Supreme Court ruling) so I didn't have any more hassle than waiting for the alphabetically challenged polling station volunteer to find my name (no, don't look up my first name, but last name, yeah, that's right, and, yes, BAI comes before BRI).

Travis came home at 6:30 and said I should skedaddle over there since there was a bit of a line when he left, but there wasn't one by the time he'd finished. We were both home within 30 minutes (or less) of leaving, and our votes were cast before 7:00am. I'm grateful we have so many polling places! I'm grateful that there are a LOT of people voting (Already, by 6:40am, 62 people had voted at our polling station).

Now, I am very glad that people are turning out to vote in record numbers. I'm glad that there are many newly registered voters who have gone to the polls. I just hope that people who have gone to vote for the president don't vote for anybody else if they don't know who they're voting for. We've got some local government positions, a school board, a governor, and a state rep to vote for this election. I am fearful that somebody who doesn't know the candidates or the issues with these "lesser" elections casts a vote against my hard-fought for information backing a specific candidate. But, I suppose that's the beauty of elections these days- no longer it it restricted to white male land owners. Harumph! I wonder how many people would be excluded these days if that were still the standard!?

And, speaking of knowing the candidates: why can't it be easier to access information about candidates? Other than a specific candidate's web site, or obviously biased commercials, there is so little information out there! And, it's like digging for a needle in a haystack to find what little there is.

Well, I've made the best decisions I can. I still wish I had better options.

So, today I can put on my sticker and say, "I Voted!"
Will you?