I Voted!

Jonathan left before 7am this morning to vote before going to work. After standing in line 2 hours and 45 minutes, he got to vote! Melanie and I planned to take turns keeping our 4 kids at her house while the other one went to vote. Melanie went up there around 10:30am and the line was still about 3 hours long! So we regrouped and decided to go back up after the kids had naps. So at 3:15pm Kiran, Sienna, our double stroller, S's car seat, S's diaper bag, K's backpack and my purse got in line at BSHS. It was kind of disheartening because periodically workers would come through calling for people whose last names started with certain letters- but never A-F. So we colored with markers and doodled and read Fairy Tales and talked to everyone and ran down hallways and and nursed and banged on lockers and took naps and spun around on the middle of the hallway. Before I went, I decided that if Kiran and Sienna got very fussy that I would leave. They were amazing. I couldn't have asked for them to be any better. After waiting two hours and 30 minutes, Jonathan arrived to take them home.

After waiting three hours and fifty minutes, I finally got to cast my vote. I was proud to be able to take part in our democratic process although it was a long afternoon. I was really proud of all the people who stayed. I don't know how many came and left after seeing the lines but many, many people stayed and waited and voted. I ended up in line with three other families who live in my neighborhood. I met more people from my neighborhood in line to vote than I have living there a year. Not really. But close. All the A-F's bonded because our line was the slow line. We came up with ways to make the process better. They could hand out buzzers like Outback and when they go off you got to come vote. Or like Disneyworld, you could come take a ticket and the ticket would tell you what time to come back and vote.

Anyhow, I'm planning to wear my I Voted sticker for at least the rest of the week. I earned it.