At about ten o’clock this morning Nathan and I saddled up and headed to downtown Winston-Salem to participate in early voting. I was hoping that picking a weird time of day would make it likely that the lines would be shorter than usual (I had heard of 30 minute waits for early voting). Monday mid-morning seemed like a time that most people would be at work. If I wasn’t taking care of Nathan, that’s where I would have been…making phone calls, setting up appointments, returning emails.
In some ways my calculations were right. There didn’t seem to be too many employees in the line. Alas, mid-morning monday seemed like the perfect time for many senior citizens to vote. Doh!
My wait time was about 40 minutes, which passed pretty quickly. Having a 5 month old in a baby bjorn made for easy conversations with the folks standing in line with me. I was privileged to hear an elderly black gentlement recount his first election, voting for Kennedy in (I guess) 1960. It was really inspiring to listen to this man for whom the right to vote had literally been won through protest and suffering. He marched to protest for voting rights.
Before I knew it, I was at the door to the polling place and in a pretty darn good mood. I had entered the back way and thereby evaded the canvassers who try desperately to get your vote even as you’re entering the polling place. If only I could have avoided the computers!
Jeff Gissing 