ELECTION DAY!

"The lines will be long tomorrow," says my coworker. "If you aren't there before 5:30am to wait in line, you'll be there for hours."

I woke at 5:40am, showered and ran out of the house by 6. It should take 30 minutes to get to my polling place since I hadn't re-registered in my new address; I would have to vote in my old district. I already told my boss I'd be late since voting didn't open til 7 and I'd still be waiting in line at that time. When I pulled into the fire station parking lot where I was scheduled to vote, there were several cars already parked outside. I figured I would be 8th or 9th in the waiting line. I grabbed my chemistry book to pass the time and headed for the door. Imagine my surprise when, at 6:20am, I walked in the door and the only people there were those setting up. No one else was in sight. {sigh} I had 40 minutes to wait til the polls opened, but at least I was first in line.

Our polling place leader was very adamant about what time we could and could not vote. When a younger gentleman came in with his absentee votes to drop off, they refused to accept them until 7am. He'd have to find another place to drop off his votes on his way out of town, after the 7am opening began.

I watched the newbie volunteers setup, listening to all the instructions, and every once in a while the elder black lady would add her 2 cents, "at the training they said that if abc happened, we were supposed to xyz." She was right every time and it made me smile to know she had taken such care in her training and was prepared to volunteer in my polling place today.

At 6:45 I saw my first sign of the other pollers. They started to gather behind me, surprised that they could not get in to vote until 7am. I'm not sure why they were surprised, but they were. The volunteers started to get excited as the line grew longer and the time til opening grew shorter. At 7am, I heard a woman's voice over the loudspeaker of the firestation. "Good morning firefighters. It's now 7am. beep Beep BEEp BEEEEEP. Oy vey, it was EAR PIERCING! Just as I said, 'That's a pleasant noise," the stations captain walked by and said, "it's our wake up call. Every morning at 7am it goes off and in 2 minutes, it will go off again, only louder." greaaatt....

Just seconds later the poll place leader called, "The polls are open! Come on in!" I went forward, gave my name, signed my roster, gave my address, gathered my ballots and went to my covered private table. I was surprised the voting was paper ballots where you use a pen to connect the arrows. Four years ago in this same district, we used electronic voting. I think I like paper better, as long as the boxes with the votes actually get delivered and counted, not found floating in a body of water somewhere.

It took me 20 minutes to vote and I have 2 pet peeves:
1. The sample ballot I grabbed from the table ended up being in Spanish. How very nerving that in voting in America for the United States President that the sample ballot explaining all of the propositions was not in the language that 82% of the people speak.
2. I had a very difficult time deciding who to vote for when it came to the presidency. Like most Americans, my thoughts were to vote for the lesser of 2 evils since I'm not fond of Obama or McCain. Each of them vote completely opposite of what I do on some very, very important issues. Then 3 weeks ago, I found a website where I entered in my opinions on the issues to see if I should vote Democrat or Republican. I was shocked to find that my opinions were not like either party! Instead, I was linked to a 3rd party candidate whose voting style was more aligned to my own beliefs. Hallalujeh! Someone running for president that thinks more like I do - what a relief! Now before you say, "voting for a 3rd party is like voting for the major party you dislike the most," hear me out.

How many people vote for the "lesser of 2 evils" because they believe that a 3rd party candidate won't win? With the dissatisfaction that Americans currently have with our government, I would say millions. If all those millions truly voted according whose policies are more aligned with their own instead of which is a Republican or which is a Democrat, I think we may finally get the change that Americans are truly looking for.

Currently, the big interest in 3rd party is younger individuals because they are not "wedded" to the 2 party system like their parents and grandparents (let's not be wedded, folks - think with an open mind). If critics say "3rd parties are taking votes from the main parties" then the answer is the main parties deserve it. They do little to improve the lives of American citizens. If you want a wasted vote, vote for Republican or Democrat because they are the ones who make the gov't what it is today. Voting Dem or Rep guarantees that nothing of substance will change. The only way to really make a change and take back from the government is to vote 3rd party.

To prove my point, I sent 4 of my friends to fill out their opinions and tell me who they were aligned with. All 5 of us came up with 3rd party candidates, even those that are STRONG Republican supporters. I know, my experiment was a very small number of individuals, but I was really was surprised to find 100% were aligned more with a 3rd party candidate than one of the 2 majors. Now you may be one of those critics that say my vote takes away from a main party, but at least with my vote, I can sleep at night knowing that I voted for someone I truly believed in, and not someone just because they are associated with a particular party.

Get out and vote today!