Although early voting opened in North Carolina on October 14, the polling place near where I live and work opened today. The polling place (the Durham County South Regional Library) opened at 11am, and I decided to head over at lunch time to vote. The library is a new polling place, having only been completed this summer, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly things went.
As soon as I turned the corner onto the street where the library is located, I could see that the parking lot was completely full. People were squeezing their cars in wherever they could. I found myself an unmarked place to park, and walked up toward the library. I was accosted by one person handing out literature for a judge (for whom I was already planning to vote) and one person calling himself an unaffiliated voter for B.J. Lawson, who wanted to talk to me. I was tempted to tell him I would rather vote for a tree stump than Lawson, but he was actually very polite, so I just said I had already decided on how I was going to vote and moved on.
Entering the library, I followed the signs and had to wait in line for a few minutes. One of the poll workers called me over, asked for my name and address, printed out my information so I could check it for accuracy, and handed me a ballot. I took the ballot over to one of the few free voting booths -- there were a lot of them, but most were being used -- and started filling out the little circles. I probably could have saved some time by voting a straight party ticket, but I kind of like filling in the circles (shades of standardized tests in school, which I always enjoyed). I had come prepared, having printed out a sample ballot and done my research to make my choices. About half of the races were uncontested, which makes it a little easier, but not as much fun. I voted for Elaine Marshall (of course) and David Price. I voted to not allow convicted felons to be sheriff. I voted for a whole bunch of judges. I'm thinking that I like the idea of "instant run-off" where you vote for your first, second and third choices, but I'll see how it turns out. When I was done, I took my ballot over to the machine, put the ballot in, and got my "I Voted Today" sticker. All in all, it took less than 10 minutes from the time I walked in the door until I walked out the door.
At 12:30pm, 90 minutes after the polling place had opened, more than 230 people had voted. When I passed by on my way home from work at 4:45pm, the parking lot was still full. Pretty good for a heavily Democratic county, considering the alleged enthusiasm gap.