Well, my son is suddenly in a whole new world. See, he grew up in Maine (and always went to the polls with me on vote day). Now, in Maine, I never once had to wait more than maybe 15 minutes to vote -- there were always at least ten booths per polling location, even in Columbia Falls, which is tiny. But this morning in Richmond, Josh got to the polls at 6:15 am to find it absolutely jammed.
He ended up waiting over two hours to vote. The place was packed, largely with college students who were up and in line already at 6 am (yay for our kids! You KNOW they're fired up if they're up at the crack of dawn -- boy oh boy I remember trying to hound him out of bed as a teenager. And HA! to the naysaying pundits who said it wouldn't happen)
There were 11 machines (in one of the most densely-populated sections of Richmond... hmm...) but he reported no problems with the machines, or vote-jumping. As he pointed out when he called, whenever he's voted in Portland, Maine, there's always been at least twenty booth -- so what exactly makes Richmond, Virginia (which dwarfs Portland) think it only needs 11 machines?
Well, we all know the answer to that, as does my son -- but it really helps point up the insanity of the situation when someone puts it like that. He said that NOBODY is expecting McCain to win Virginia -- not even the McCain folks. He also said that nobody was leaving the lines -- they all appeared determined to stay there as long as it took.
He's throwing a party after the polls close, and he and his buds are planning to stay up until the results are in and official. I'll be there with him by phone, at least :-) I hate that he's so far away.
I know, this isn't much of a diary, but I am SO PROUD of my bright, intellight, but sometimes slothful son who made it to the polls by 6:15 am to be able to vote before he went to work (he was still late, despite leaving himself almost two hours to vote in) that I had to come post and share with you all his first-hand account from Virginia!
KUDOS TO OUR KIDS!!!