Voter turnout should be awesome today. I spent no more than 15 minutes today taking time to vote and partake in the Democratic process of a general election. Hopefully the voting process does not come across as too much of a pain in the ass for some voters or we may have even lower turnouts in future elections from the cynical and lazy among us.
I woke up this morning excited to take part in history. After eating breakfast, I walked about 100 feet from my apartment door to the poll in the "Clubhouse" or reserved party room of my apartment complex. I was asked my name on a list of registered voters from which I was checked off and then asked to sign another list and write my address. I was then given my ballot and I went over to the voting station to fill in the boxes of my choice with a large black ink marker. After carefully taking my time, I submitted my ballot and received an "I Voted" sticker. I noticed my ballot had John McCain listed at the very bottom of the left hand column for "President and Vice President," a spot I thought would be reserved for a third-party candidate but instead three of these candidates were listed from the top down before I saw Obama on the list.
I did my part to help "Barack the vote" and I hope the voting process is as easy for other people outside of my city as it was for me. Major news networks may actually call the election before the polls close tonight, see article here, on the West Coast and in states of Alaska and Hawaii. This very well may drop voter turnout in these states after some voters already know that their vote probably won't make an impact on the presidential election. I would hope though that these disheartened voters should at least care and be motivated enough to vote for their local representatives in the state senate and assembly and other state propositions such as the controversial prop 8 in CA. If all goes well, gays will continue to have the right to marry and we will have a Black man and Democrat as our president. Those are two historical moments I would not have thought I would see happening as little as a year ago.