Oh, boy! Sorry for the short diary, but thought I had to put this out quick.
Yesterday, I posted this diary as I was running out the door to vote before going to work. Here's what happened yesterday.
What I wrote yesterday:
I'm voting in Northwest Indiana this morning. I hope.
I received a flyer from the Obama campaign telling me where my voting place was. My wife and I looked at it this morning, as we were on our way out the door.
"Look! This isn't the place where we regularly vote! Huh! What's that about?"
About a week ago, the road where our regular polling place is located was CLOSED for "construction."
So we figured, they must have changed it due to the construction. My wife headed out to the place on the flyer. Guess what? That's not our polling place. Our polling place is on the road that is closed. And in order to get there, you have to go down a bunch of winding roads through farmlands.
Now, the Obama campaign might have made a mistake, BUT, the Governor here is a Republican, and so is the Secretary of State. So, I smell a rat. I called the Obama campaign to report it. The guy I talked to was a little wigged. He tried to transfer me, but it didn't go through and now the line is swamped.
So, my wife is currently headed down the winding roads. I'm headed out the door to vote. If anyone reading this has time, please contact the media to tell them about this irregularity. Unfortunately, I can't or I would.
After a couple of comments, I ran out the door to drive to my polling place.
Because of the "road construction" that closed the road, for no reasonable cause that one can SEE, looking at the road, I had to take a detour to get to the polling place. The detour was not marked. You just had to figure out how to get to the polling place, located on a road that is closed to thru traffic on both sides of the polling place.
The first intersection on the route that one MUST take in order to get to the polling place, (I discovered on Tuesday morning) was blocked by the water company. The water company is a corporation that handles water distibution, thanks to privatizing efforts which have jacked up the cost of water in Indiana. There they were, blocking the road: five guys, shirts off, jeering at prospective voters while they blocked the road.
I pulled over and walked up to these guys. "Who told you that you could block the road on election day?" I asked them point blank. Well, that got me nowhere. These guys were determined to milk filling two potholes all day long, and snarling traffic, depressing the vote. I told the foreman "You haven't heard the last of this!" And I went on my way.
At the next intersection along the winding route to the polling place, I saw the wastewater trucks blocking the road. I laughed. OK, guess I'll have to report that too.
At the next intersection that one must pass to get to the polling place, the gas and electric corporation was blocking the road (NIPSCO). What, Comcast isn't out here too?
When I got to the polling place, I went to the precint captain and he got on the phone immediately.
On my way back, I stopped to talk to the NIPSCO guys. "You guys aren't going to block the road on election day, right?" I asked them point blank. Turns out, they were already contacted and warned not ot block the road. As I passed the wastewater guys, they had unblocked the road. As I passed the water comnpany guys, they were just finishing the second pothole.
"Nice work guys!" I said as I passed.
I voted for Barack Obama. And so did my wife.