October 22. I am up early. Today is important. I have waited a long time for today.
I put on my Dean t-shirt and head out the door, stopping to pick up the bumper sticker I ordered from makestickers.com, just for today:
My vote goes to The Nominee.
My heart stays with Dean.
Get over it.
I put it on my car, above all my Dean stickers. I get in and drive toward the closest early voting location. I slide my Dean CD, the one with the Great Restoration Speech, into the CD player. I turn the volume up LOUD. I pull into the parking lot at the polling location just as Dean is saying, ??and we call ourselves?Americans.? I sit and listen to the end, ?YOU have the power to take back this country!? before switching off the ignition. I am ready.
I walk into the polling place. There are a couple of dozen voters there; I?m one of two who are white. I look at all those faces, people who never went to a Meetup, never waved signs at a rally, never heard of a blog. Who just showed up when it mattered. My eyes fill with tears. This country may turn out to still be worth something after all. Part of it, anyway.
I stand in line for a few minutes, then I give my name and address, sign the verification form. I get my ballot. I go to one of the tables to vote. I fill in the arrow for The Nominee. Tears well up again. I?ve waited so long to vote for Anybody But. And, looking at those faces, I believe we really *are* going to take our country back.
Having paid my ?lesser of evils? dues for this election cycle, I continue down the ballot, crying as I go, voting for whomever the hell I please?
I vote for the Libertarian for the US Senate. The Republican is awful, the Democrat is pretty dreadful, and I liked what the Libertarian had to say about the state of the two parties.
I happily vote for the Democratic incumbent in the U.S. House race.
I vote for a Libertarian again for Governor. The Democrat is so-so, and he will win this without my vote. He?s electable. I want my vote to count, so I vote outside the two-party system and for the woman instead. It?s a win/win situation for me.
I happily vote for the Democrat for Lieutenant Governor. She kicked off the election year in her county by advising local Democrats to "open that big umbrella the Democrats have" to Independents and Republicans "who aren't real happy with what's going on. We're going to win big in North Carolina." And they will, too.
I vote for the Republican for Attorney General?a real shocker when you consider how I feel about Ashcroft. But our local left-leaning independent weekly endorsed him over the Democrat, and made a very good case for it.
I slide down the next 7 state offices, voting for Democrats all the way. North Carolina always goes Democratic at the state level; I think the Republicans have mostly stopped trying.
I happily vote for the Republican for the NC Senate. I would rather have voted for Julia Boseman, our Dean Dozen candidate, but she?s not in my district. The Republican running out of my district got good reviews from almost everybody, and her website has a link labeled ?Democrats for?? Reminds me of a guy I used to know.
I happily vote for the Democrat for the NC House. He seems to be pretty good. And I?m less self-indulgent when it comes to choosing those who will make our laws.
I vote happily for one Democrat and one Republican seeking one of the five open seats for our County Commission. The Democrat has a reputation for being fair and for not toeing any ideological lines, and he says he always votes his conscience. Reminds me of a guy I used to know. The Republican? That?s a long story. Just an ordinary citizen without a clue has to how her government works, but she wants to make a difference and has more spunk than the rest of candidates combined. A black female Republican running in an overwhelmingly Democratic county, she will lose huge. Except for Anybody But, it?s my favorite vote of the day. I vote comfortably for one other Democrat and pass over the rest?ho hum.
I dutifully vote for the lone candidate for Register of Deeds, a Democrat. I voted for his opponent in the primary?my mistake, I found out later. So I vote for him, even though he?s uncontested in the general. I owed him one.
I go straight Dem on the all the judiciary candidates. Again, I?m less self-indulgent when it comes to those who make law. And it's easy anyway...in all but one race voting for the Democrat is voting for the woman.
Let?s see?that makes a total of 19 Democrats, two Libertarians, and three Republicans; 10 women and 14 men; 18 whites and 6 blacks. Feels like a democracy to me.
I finish up with votes on the proposed constitutional amendments and go over to our voting machines. They are all optical scanners, and I think warm thoughts about the head of our Board of Elections. I insert my ballot and watch the little counter tick up.
A poll worker gives me the little ?I Voted? sticker and I turn to leave. I look at all the black faces filing in the door and I start crying again. As I exit the building, two black women coming up the walk notice my tears. They frown with concern. I give them a thumbs up and a smile. ?I?m happy,? I say. Their faces relax. ?Thank you so much, ? I add. ?We?re going to throw those SOBs out of there.? They both break into bright smiles. ?We sure are, honey,? they say. ?We sure are.?
I walk out to the parking lot. I take a deep breath. I?m done. It?s been 16 months to the day since I signed up with the Dean for America campaign, having no idea how it would change my life. Back then, I was just hoping to take back my country. Now I want to do better than that. But today?after all this time?I finally got to vote to stop the madness.
It felt really good.
Posted by Free Spirit at October 22, 2004 10:06 PM
Posted by Hannah at October 23, 2004 07:01 AM