Early voting began today in the Sooner state. After dropping off my youngest at his school I headed to the Northeastern State University campus in Broken Arrow. One of just two early voting locations in Wagoner County.
Trump won wagoner county in 2020 74-24, there is no doubt what the outcome will be. I will consider it a victory if Harris loses by just 40.
It was unseasonably warm today. 82 degrees. And windy. And it's so dry. Grass fires in the area...
In 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 I voted in person on election day. 2016 I voted mail-in and in 2020 I didn't trust the USPS so I did in-person early voting. Ditto 2024. And the line was MASSIVE.
That's fine. Anyway...I take my spot and wait. Two gentlemen behind me were strangers and start to shoot the shit. Within a few mins they're comfortable with each other and start talking about how great Trump is. Fine. Whatever.
They keep at it for about 5 more minutes. Then they start talking about how Harris is bringing in "illegals" and giving them citizenship and registering them to vote. To this I say loudly (not yelling) "oh Jesus" and look both them in the eyes. They stop talking politics for a while.
Line moves slowly. Everybody is chatting. Nobody I hear talks politics or elections. Few more minutes go by and they start again.
"Lot of people here. Hopefully none of them for KaMALa, they are all crazies!" I sigh loudly.
And again..."we just gotta hope they don't change the votes on the computers again."
I turned around and said to them clearly, "I'm one of the crazies and you shouldn't be talking about this."
The 62-year-old Hispanic gentleman didn't respond(I know his age due to conversations they would later have) but the older white guy responds, "It's called free speech"
"It's called electioneering"
"It's a free country, you don't think others here are talking about the election?"
"They can talk about it, but you should be respectful and stop saying lies"
"It's called the first amendment"
"You insulted me and others and are being inappropriate. I don't want to hear this for the next hour"
I turned around and the ladies in front of me kinda smiled uncomfortably. No idea if they agreed with me, but a moment later the line started moving again.
I made occasional interjections in the conversations with the folks in front of me. All friendly rest of the wait.
The guys behind me spoke to each other a minute or so later but stopped their ignorant rhetoric. Maybe 45 mins later we get toward the front and workers handed us green sheets to fill out. The older MAGAs that were behind me were confused. I turned around and explained that it was an affidavit for EARLY in person ABSENTEE voting, you promise to not mail in a ballot after turning this in.
I cast my vote for Harris and all the other candidates that will finish in 2nd place in the state/district. I choose YES to retain all three of the OK supreme court justices on the ballot (the supreme court is the only thing that stands in the way of total Oklahoma insanity like superintendent Ryan Walters, and these were good justices) i refer to my cheat sheet for all the other judges on the ballot. And I vote NO on state question 834. This changes the language in the constitution regarding citizenship and voting. This seems scary
"Legislature may prescribe, all citizens of the United States, over the age of eighteen (18) years, who are bona fide residents of this state, are qualified electors of this state.”
From that it changes "all" to "only". My serious reservation is taking out "all". Anyway, I bet that passes with 90%
After I turned in my ballot I checked my phone and saw I was in line for two hours. Also saw the line was twice as long as when I arrived.
On way to my car, two of the people that were in front of me (had witnessed my dressing down of the MAGAs) were struggling to take a selfie in front of a flag pole, I asked if they wanted me to take their picture and they happily accepted.
I'm not a confrontational guy. I can't believe I let them get under my skin. Another election in the books. Six more days before the real excitement starts.
UPDATE:
From a facebook post from Wagoner County Election Board
2,594 early votes cast on first day of early voting in county. In 2020 the total for all four days was 6,374. Looks like early voting will surpass that as that’s 40.7% from just day 1.
Similarly Tulsa county had 6,514 ballots cast today, 2020 saw 13,330 for all four days. That’s 48.9% of the total.
Tulsa county was the third bluest county in OK in 2020 with Biden “only” losing by 15.59%. If Harris only loses by 10% I’d call that a win.
Oklahoma county was the only county where Biden was within single digits in 2020, losing only by 1.13%. I assume Harris can and WILL win Oklahoma county.
