I live in Chester County, Pennsylvania which has been a republican stronghold for almost forever. I live in a particularly heavily republican area in the central-northwest part of the county. My home is about 10 miles from Lancaster County but the Amish farms start in this corner of Chester County not too far up the road from where I live. So I thought I'd give an update of my little precinct as of this afternoon.
I volunteered to sit at the Democratic table at my precinct for 3 hours this afternoon. I got there around 1:00 pm and voted. I was the 117th voter and the 24th Democrat. In Pennsylvania, we have a closed primary so you have to register with a party if you want to vote in the primary. This Democratic primary ballot was not too exciting in that almost all the races were uncontested except for senate and attorney general. You may remember former Congressman Murphy of Bucks County, the Iraqi war vet who won in 2008 and lost in 2010. He's running for attorney general against a Clinton backed candidate. But Murphy is endorsed by the state and county party. This race is about the only interesting thing on the ballot.
So it's not generating too much excitement. But then the republican ballot isn't generating a lot of excitement either. The great thing about this polling place is that we get to sit inside because the building is so large, we're far enough away from the voting place. The weather is really good today, mostly sunny and mild. We just had torrential rain over the weekend.
Like all the other states who voted in a republican governor in 2010, we have a voter I.D. law that will take effect in November but they are asking for I.D. now. You do not have to produce it to vote in the primary. It's all very wrong and very offensive. We better be ready for the shennigans the republicans pull in November. The woman at the voting table announced very loudly that I was a Democrat, a very rare species. I said with pride that yes, I am a Democrat.
But it was interesting watching the committee people. The republican committee members, one man , one woman, looked like they had been committee people forever. They sat at the table with all the literature. Farther away and outside, sat a couple who were running for the committee spots apparently challenging the old timers. This seems to really tick off the incumbents. Is the tea party trying to overthrow the entrenched old time republicans?
Then there was the discussion of Michelle Obama, Obamacare and other misinformation they discussed among themselves. Apparently, there is something terribly wrong about getting involved in promoting children's health though a good diet and exercise. Did you know that there is going to be a 3% real estate transfer tax on the sale of your house to pay for Obamacare? They just know they have to get Obama out of the Whitehouse or horrible things will happen. Horrible things did happen to this country but it was from 2000 to 2008 under Bush.
It was so hard to sit there, not correct their misinformation (and these were supposedly the politically active). One of them said that showing I.D. was not mandatory so I shot back that then they shouldn't ask for it at all.
The polling place was so slow for the three hours I was there. I doubt there were 20 voters in that time. I did speak to 4 Democrats who stopped by my table. I figured that was pretty good considering where I was and how slow the polls were. One couple complained that the website for the county Democratic party didn't even list the candidates. They had to go through all the candidates listed on the state Democratic party website. My county party leaves a lot to be desired. Sigh.