With new poll information indicating that McCain has tied or regained the lead, it's important for every Democrat to get out and vote. But for many people, this has not been easy, due to long lines resulting in waits of one to three hours. Local columnist Mike Mayo chides people (like me) who are unwilling to wait so long:
It kind of infuriates me when I hear people grousing about "being disenfranchised" because they turned around when they saw a long wait. Uh, sorry, being disenfranchised is when you’re unfairly denied the chance to vote, not because you’re inconvenienced and can’t vote in the same amount of time you could blow through a fast-food drive-in lane. Let’s be real folks. Elections are important stuff, the lifeblood of democracy. There are countries where people stand in line all day -- 8 or 10 hours -- to vote. One hour isn’t an unwieldy sacrifice.
I managed to vote today at the Main Library in Ft. Lauderdale. Unlike on Monday, when I first tried to vote and there was a line of people 50 yards long, today they had a much better setup. They gave everyone a number and said to expect to wait an hour or more. You could leave the premises or sit down and wait in the auditorium, which is within range of the library's free wi-fi. So I got my number, grabbed lunch at a nearby restaurant, then returned to the auditorium and surfed the web for about 15 minutes until it was my turn.
Boy, what a long ballot! Four large pages, double sided. And you have to fill in a circle for each of your choices with a black pen. The touch screen was much faster, too bad that didn't work out. Guess it's nice to have a paper record.
Suggestion: get a sample ballot and look it over before you go in to vote. At the library today, they were out of sample English ballots, so I looked at one in Creole (not much help, except for the names). Here's the sample ballot for Broward, in English.
You can avoid waiting altogether by requesting a mail-in absentee ballot. You can fill out the request form online. Here's the link for the Broward County order form.
Also, if long lines are a concern, current waiting time at each polling station is now posted online, at least in Broward and Miami-Dade. Here's the link for Broward County waiting time. You can also phone 311 for the same info.
According to the latest Mason-Dixon poll the Florida race is a statistical dead heat, with McCain now up by 46%-45%. Could be another cliffhanger here, so please take the time to vote and turn Florida blue, so on November 4 Barack can get to sleep early.