The weirdest polling location ever...
...someone's garage
This morning I woke up before the alarm for the first time... ever?
I woke up tired and happy and elated and thinking it was almost too good to be true. Was it real? Did I dream it?
It was truly a remarkable night.
Like most folks telling tales of going to the polls yesterday, I have my own voting story.
I got to my voting place about 5, all rarin' to color in my block when they told me my poll location had been changed.
Uhh, what?! When? Then one of the volunteers (who was a sweet man about 75 years old) tried to give me directions to my new voting place.
I just got pump-faked by the board of elections! I told a friend. If you think you're going to keep me from voting you got another thing coming Hamilton County BOE!
Of course the directions to my new voting place are wrong, but I find it eventually and it's... In someone's garage?
Oh yes. In someone's garage. (See photo above.) Whoever lives there is a machinist, judging by the two giant lathes with metal scraps curling out of them.
Inside this garage are about 6 voting booths, a covered pool table with about 3 inches of dust on it and a fire place with fake wood in it.
Well of course my address doesn't match my driver's license so I have to run back home (praying the entire time) that I have a bill or something proving I'm legit to vote there.
But I just paid bills and I'm not sure if I have one and if I have to cast a provisional ballot I'll totally flip and if Barack doesn't win Ohio it's all my fault and... Deep breaths, deep breaths. There's your cell bill. Oh thank god.
So I strap on my helmet and decide to ride Stella there because I feel like she's good luck, and she is because then I'm presented with my official ballot, which I darken in for Obama so thoroughly I wonder if I'm bleeding ink to the other side.
I'm not entirely unconvinced they didn't just shove my ballot into that fireplace as soon as I walked out. It wasn't exactly "official" looking there in the basement/garage, you know.
But anyway...
As the returns rolled in last night I felt immense pride for Ohio, and even more pride this morning for my home state of Indiana. Finally!
And can I just say, Michelle Obama rocks my world. I've never thought too much of First Ladies. Yeah, First Ladies, whatever, who cares. But I'm beyond excited about Michelle. I can't wait to be completely obsessed with her!
2 comments:
I voted in someone's basement - while they seemingly did laundry every election day - for 3 1/2 years. It was bizarre, dodging some old lady clothing hanging on a rack and hearing the clothes dryer buzzer going off. Then, the last time I was to vote there, I found out my polling location had been moved to a nursing home, thus ending the inspection of the laundry.
I used to vote at the old-folks condo tower at Dana and Madison. Strange in it's own right.
There's an Oriental Wok there now. Weird, huh?
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