I just got back from the Henderson County, NC Board of Elections and thought the community might be interested in my tale of voting.
First, damn did it feel good to vote for Heath Shuler against corrupt Charles Taylor. Even if Shuler doesn't win, I feel like I stood up to the bastards in Washington. But I think he's going to win!
North Carolina has an early voting law that allows you to cast absentee ballots through tomorrow. It's a "no excuse needed" system, so all you need to do is show up. Every county in the state is required to have at least one "one-stop" voting center. Mine was at the Board of Elections Headquarters.
The headquarters building is tucked away off a major highway, but isn't close to any other government facility, so you really have to look hard to find it. Except, today there was a sign and a policeman directing traffic. Yes, lots and lots of traffic.
I pulled into the building and saw a line snaking outside the door. Everyone waiting patiently to vote. It took me about a half hour to get to the registration desk.
I give a heck of a lot of credit to the workers there. They handled the crowd with smooth efficiency and good humor.
The crowd itself was very interesting. Of course, we were all speaking in "code", trying not to get into arguments over who we were voting for. But I heard a lot more "blue" code than "red" code, even though the average age of those in line was definitely over 65.
I spoke briefly with a polling official who took my name and gave me the ballot permission form. She said that they have been "swamped" since early voting opened. She also said early voting has been much heavier than it was during the 2004 general election. And then she said, "I guess people understand how much it matters this time." Which I took to be "blue" code!!!
The voting machine was an ES&S electronic voting machine. It prints a paper record of your vote as a backup which you can review just to make sure there's no hanky panky. Several people in line expressed nervousness about voting fraud and problems with voting machines, but this one appeared to be doing just fine.
Now, if I can just get the robocalls to stop. I think the one thing everyone in line agreed on was that the robocalls are the worst of the worst in terms of electioneering intrusiveness. NOBODY listens to them. EVERYBODY hangs up or deletes the messages instantly. Why any campaign would waste their time on this nonsense is beyond me.