Drew and I voted in what amounts to a large closet at the nearby elementary school this morning. Really, it was a portion of hallway in some little used part of the school, but I could swear it was barely wide enough for two grown adults to comfortably stand shoulder-to-shoulder – plus those flimsy voting booths lined up along the wall.At school, when I was dropping G off, people talked about anticipating waiting in line for 2-3 hours; the best time to go is between 1 and 4pm when they expect a lull; people were parking three blocks away to vote at the parish hall. I joked that maybe seeing as I had two very small children with me, others might take pity and let me cut in front of them.
Drew went early early to get there right when it opened – at 6am. Even he arrived 15 minutes early, there were about 30 people in front of him, the only line he doesn't mind standing in, and by the time they opened the doors, there were at least 60 people behind him! I arrived at about 8:30, and pretty much walked right to the front. It's funny, in mid-vote, I had stopped to shuffle Z who was in the sling, when suddenly my voting booth started to shake violently. BB was upset at not getting to see what I was doing and wanted to be picked up. I held her for a little bit, but it's nearly impossible to balance two children and lean close enough to the voting booth so you can see the ballot *and* be out of the way of other people in that "closet". I started to become paranoid that my ink pen (with scan-tron bubble sheet) wasn't marking properly, and once or twice I even found that it hadn't marked at all. Anyway I've got my sticker now and I know there's free donuts to be had a Krispy Kreme, and I overheard a woman going for free coffee at Starbucks.
