On polling places.
They took ours away years ago, and I miss them.
I miss...
...going down in the cool evening to the Elementary school gym and walking into the bright warm gymnasium.
...the vaulted ceiling and the cathedral hush where rustling of the voter-reg books echoed off the beams.
...the little old ladies who volunteered and how they were always happy to see you.
...choosing a "voting booth", which was usually a study carrel from the school.
...the machine and the little punch-stylus you used to mark the ballot.
...depositing the ballot into the scarred plywood box and wondering where it was kept between elections.
I miss the "I Voted!" sticker the nice little old ladies would give you as you left, and which I would carefully transfer to my clothes for the next day.
Tenino isn't quite Dixville Notch, but there was never a line, never a wait.
They took that away in 2005. Now you must mark the ballot in the "privacy of your home" and entrust it to either the vagaries of the postal system or a metal depository sitting in a cold, wet parking lot.
I miss...
...going down in the cool evening to the Elementary school gym and walking into the bright warm gymnasium.
...the vaulted ceiling and the cathedral hush where rustling of the voter-reg books echoed off the beams.
...the little old ladies who volunteered and how they were always happy to see you.
...choosing a "voting booth", which was usually a study carrel from the school.
...the machine and the little punch-stylus you used to mark the ballot.
...depositing the ballot into the scarred plywood box and wondering where it was kept between elections.
I miss the "I Voted!" sticker the nice little old ladies would give you as you left, and which I would carefully transfer to my clothes for the next day.
Tenino isn't quite Dixville Notch, but there was never a line, never a wait.
They took that away in 2005. Now you must mark the ballot in the "privacy of your home" and entrust it to either the vagaries of the postal system or a metal depository sitting in a cold, wet parking lot.