Greetings and salutations. Yesterday I shared my excellent and exhausting day of attending Barack's rally in downtown Miami with me and about 40,000 of my closest friends. Here's my diary of yesterday's rally: http://www.dailykos.com/...
Today was vote day for myself, my immediate family, and my friends (5 of which I got registered to vote here in Florida).
The lines here in Fort Lauderdale were long, overflowing parking lots, etc. I also conducted an extremely poor poll of the people in front of me and in back of me to see who they were voting for. I'll give you a hint. His name starts with Barack Obama.
Pictures (like this from Barack's rally yesterday in downtown Miami) and more below the fold.
Today was a good day.
Here's who voted for Barack today:
Myself. My sister and brother in law, my mother and father, my 87 year old grandmother and 3 of her 80+ year old friends that live by her, my aunt, and 9 of my friends, 5 of which were either not registered to vote or moved from up north, but never switched their voter registration.
I had the pleasure of taking my 87 year old grandmother and her 3 80+ year old friends in my car to vote. They were excited!!! Big time. I asked them if they thought about voting for McCain. The unanimous answer I received from some pretty feisty ladies was, "He was such a jerk to Obama in the debates. He's mean."
When we went to our local polling place in west Broward, it was freaking mobbed. When I say mobbed, I mean, mobbed. Parking lot: full. Side street, packed with at least 200 cars (including mine and my parents').
Surprisingly, it went pretty quick. They had it set up almost like you were at Walt Disney World. At intervals they had signs up that read the wait time. 60 minutes, 45 minutes, 30 minutes, etc.
Here's a pick of the line at 30 minutes or so. I love the guy's shirt a few people in front of me: NO EXCUSES.
The voting method here in South Florida is pretty interesting and pretty high tech. I'm sure this is like similar methods across the country, but I was very impressed.
You sign in with your driver's license. Then you wait on a line and depending on which district you live in, they print out your exact ballot and hand it to you with a receipt that has your name and signature.
As I was standing there waiting to get my ballot and vote, I took a long gander at the 3 people in front of me and the 2 people behind me, their receipts. It has your name, address, party ID, and your ballot number.
Guess what: ALL DEMOCRATS. Older white people. Older than me I should say, I'm 33.
Our ballot was 4 pages, front and back. A second group of people then reconfirms your ballot with you and another person went over in great detail to bubble in your selections with a black pen.
I think there were like 11 different people that made the ballot for President here in Florida. I've never heard of half of them at least. I bubbled in for Barack and Joe. Then I bubbled it in again just to make sure. I filled out the rest of my ballot and then I checked, bubbled again, rechecked, and bubbled again for Barack and Joe just to make sure!!!
After I was done, they make you stand in another line where another poll worker explained to me to feed my 4 page ballot into some kind of scanning machine. I had a heart attack thinking about what my grandmother and her Motley Crue were going to do at this juncture, but the poll worker was more than helpful.
They handed my "I voted" sticker and I felt good. Then, my immediate family and I went out to dinner and talked about how this has to happen. It just has to happen. IT FUCKING HAS TO HAPPEN.
I made all of my friends email me a picture of their "I voted" stickers. I'm going out later to a movie with most of them to "verify" their votes. They think I'm a little overboard for making sure they voted, but they are in complete agreement with voting Barack 100%.
Florida is going to be a tough state. Don't believe any polls that come out of Florida. I'm a native Floridian, born and raised in South Florida and went to undergrad and graduate school at USF in Tampa. This state is mega blue here in South Florida and mostly red north of Palm Beach county. I know volunteers are poring their hearts into turning Florida blue. I know Team Obama is as well. You can't turn on a TV station or listen to the radio without hearing a tailor-made spot for Barack and his support for specific Florida issues (the Everglades, insurance for Hurricanes, health care for seniors, etc.).
Okay. I'll leave you with some stuff I got at yesterday's Barack rally in downtown Miami. I put my "I voted" sticker on one of them.
KEEP IT UP EVERYBODY. STRAIGHT THROUGH NOVEMBER 4TH. DON'T STOP. DON'T BELIEVE ANY POLLS. KEEP THE FAITH. STAY POSITIVE. GET INVOLVED ANY WAY YOU CAN. GET YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO VOTE. INFORM THE UNINFORMED. WE REALLY CAN MAKE HISTORY IN TWO WEEKS IF WE STAY HUNGRY AND DETERMINED.