Typewritten Teacup

A brief election day message

Did you? If not, get to it!! (Need the info? Check out vote-usa.org!)

I told my sister that I always vote before work. Since we managed to get out of the house by 7:15, she had plenty of time to come and vote with me. I went to my local Slopeside polling place, signed in, and headed into the booth.

The voting machines available are ones that I've been familiar with for a long time. My parents vote in every election (primary or main, doesn't matter), and for many years, they took my sister and me along with them as they did this (every so often into the booth, too, so I could see what was going on). There's a big red lever you pull in one direction to activate your ballot. Then you vote by flipping little switches, then you pull the lever in the other direction. I'm an experienced lever puller, it used to be my "job" when I was accompanying a parent as a little girl. So imagine my surprise this morning, as I went to move the lever into the "I'm done!" position and found it to be stuck.

So I pulled. And pulled again. And pulled yet again, with even more force. I was so focused on this stubborn lever that I barely noticed the booth around me doing a little dance (or more accurately, rolling all over the place as I fought with the thing.) Eventually, one of the volunteers came in and got the blasted lever to move, and my votes were counted. Still, it was entirely my pleasure to bring those in charge of Brooklyn's District 16 voting machine a good hearty laugh at my expense this morning, as I made the machine dance. I laughed plenty myself, and hey, I always love it when I know for a fact that I'll be a character in some stranger's "Remember that time when...?" story.

So, in summation, if a spaz like me can make the tiniest corner of the world a better, happier, nicer place just by voting, SO CAN YOU!

We now return you to our regularly scheduled writherly blatherings.

posted by Sharon @ 12:37 PM