The Official Election Day Post

I normally leave all the political chat to those who can speak with more eloquence on the subject than I...

...but it is election day, so I'll throw in my story.

Last night when I decided to work out at the gym, I dug through my purse for my driver's license, so I wouldn't have to lug my whole purse to the gym. No license. I freaked out. A.) How long had I been driving around without it in my wallet? 2.) Where was it? C.) I VOTE IN LESS THAN TWELVE HOURS!!!!!

Found it. It was with the stack of prayer cards I take to the gym to count my laps. Apparently it had been there since last week when I went to the gym. Good thing I didn't get pulled over recently! And a blessed good thing I decided to go to the gym last night - when I almost didn't. Can you just imagine me getting in line to vote and discovering I was license-less?

I woke up (by the sheer force of multiple alarms) at 5:40, ate two pieces of toast, and went to vote at six on the dot - in my pajamas, sporting my bedhead, smeary masacara and all.

I'm not fond of my voting location - for safety reasons. This is the first time I've had to go there by myself. Wren, if you're reading this, can you convince your husband to move back here so we can continue our tradition of voting together for safety in numbers?? For a few years the location changed to a better spot and now it's back to scary-ville. You can imagine my joy at the prospect of waiting in the dark, outside, in my jammies. But fortunately my outside wait was only about fifteen minutes.

Add another hour to the inside wait. I was three people up in line from my friend Amber, and as I approached the sign-in table, I leaned around and said, "HEY! Watch this. When I get up here, this lady is going to ask me if I'm related to Dave and tell me that her sons had him in school." She took my license, told me where to sign (after looking for my name in a variety of creative-yet-wrong spellings of my last name) and said to me, "Are you related to Dave? My sons had him for a teacher!" I could hear Amber cracking up behind me.

But at last, after winding my way around tables in the little room and listening to people call to report that their spouse would need to find alternate transportation for the kids...or that they'd be late to work...I voted.

And I was only 3 minutes late to work. I thought that was pretty excellent considering I'd not even STARTED getting ready.

My only comment on the whole thing is that this is a huge shame. (NOTE - the link doesn't work anymore, but the story was about 3 firefighters who lost their chance to vote because they had already signed in when they received a fire call and they left the line to go to the fire. When they came back, they were told they could not vote, because Indiana law says once you sign in, you vote or you forfeit.)