I just cast my absentee ballot in the New Haven town clerk's office (having realized that I'll be overseas for election day). Walked in, showed an ID, filled out some paperwork, was handed a real paper ballot, and put a big X in the Lamont square. Walked out, smiling.
Lieberman lost me the day he voted to confirm Alberto Gonzalez. Up until then, I was willing to stick with him as my senator, despite major disagreements, the way my parents-in-law stay together for practical reasons although the passion disappeared decades ago. But the Gonzalez vote was purely gratuitous, a completely unnecessary affirmation of the author of the torture memo. That was the day I decided to file the divorce papers. Lieberman may stand for torture, but I'll be damned if he's going to do it in my name.
So today, for the second time in 2 months, I got to vote for Ned Lamont. It was so, so sweet to see Lamont in the line with all the other Democrats, and look way down the ballot to glance at Joe lurking on the bottom, all by himself on the Lieberman for Lieberman ticket. I'm still despondent that enough Repubs will vote for Joe that he'll pull it out in the end, and I'm not at all looking foward to the next few weeks of being carpet bombed by election fliers, recorded phone messages, and deceptive Joementum ads. At least for today, though, walking out of City Hall having put one on the board for Lamont, I could feel hopeful.