I VOTED!!!!!!!!
Well, I did it. I did it and laughed all the way home from the polls.
A cautionary tale for y'all, though:
There are two presincts in the polling place where I go to vote. They are on seperate tables. I went to the first table and gave the lady my name, and she told me that my name wasn't on the list, so I went to the second table and my name wasn't on the list there, either. They offered me a provisional ballot.
But the thing about the provisional ballots is that they may or may not get counted, and Prop 8 and Prop 4 are both pretty close, and I -really- wanted them both shot down. Plus, I had voted IN THAT POLLING PLACE only two years previous. So I talked to the main election supervisor and told him that I wanted him to look into it. He tried twice to make me go away, until a guy who I think was there to encourage voting fairness told him to call the supervisor in Woodland. He was obviously PISSED at me, and pointed out that this was the supervisor of all Yolo County several times when he handed the phone to me, then glared at me while I talked to her.
I gave her my name and address, and she told me I was on the presinct A list. I went back and told the lady there that she needed to check again. Again, she started to tell me that i wasn't on the list, but this time I looked over her shoulder and found my name. Everyone was very apologetic after that, and I think there was a hint of 'don't get us in trouble'.
I don't usually make a stink about these things, especially with people who are obviously new at what they're doing and who are doing such a good thing. But this year was so important. This year was my one chance to be part of something so much bigger than myself. So I raised a stink, and I got to vote with a real ballot, a ballot that I know will improve Obama's margins in California, and a ballot that will throw my weight against Prop 4 and Prop 8.
I walked out of the polling place laughing, almost in a sense of hysteria. I felt like it was Christmas, except Santa is real, and he looks damn fine in a suit.
After I voted, I went to Rite Aid and bought a cheap photo frame. I am going to frame my stickers and my ballot stub, and years from now, I am going to tell my children and my grandchildren that I was part of this, the dawn of a new day in America.
Last but not least, I leave you a quote from good old Bill the Bard, quoted along with the rest of the speech by Nate Silver at 538.com:
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Go vote, y'all.
A cautionary tale for y'all, though:
There are two presincts in the polling place where I go to vote. They are on seperate tables. I went to the first table and gave the lady my name, and she told me that my name wasn't on the list, so I went to the second table and my name wasn't on the list there, either. They offered me a provisional ballot.
But the thing about the provisional ballots is that they may or may not get counted, and Prop 8 and Prop 4 are both pretty close, and I -really- wanted them both shot down. Plus, I had voted IN THAT POLLING PLACE only two years previous. So I talked to the main election supervisor and told him that I wanted him to look into it. He tried twice to make me go away, until a guy who I think was there to encourage voting fairness told him to call the supervisor in Woodland. He was obviously PISSED at me, and pointed out that this was the supervisor of all Yolo County several times when he handed the phone to me, then glared at me while I talked to her.
I gave her my name and address, and she told me I was on the presinct A list. I went back and told the lady there that she needed to check again. Again, she started to tell me that i wasn't on the list, but this time I looked over her shoulder and found my name. Everyone was very apologetic after that, and I think there was a hint of 'don't get us in trouble'.
I don't usually make a stink about these things, especially with people who are obviously new at what they're doing and who are doing such a good thing. But this year was so important. This year was my one chance to be part of something so much bigger than myself. So I raised a stink, and I got to vote with a real ballot, a ballot that I know will improve Obama's margins in California, and a ballot that will throw my weight against Prop 4 and Prop 8.
I walked out of the polling place laughing, almost in a sense of hysteria. I felt like it was Christmas, except Santa is real, and he looks damn fine in a suit.
After I voted, I went to Rite Aid and bought a cheap photo frame. I am going to frame my stickers and my ballot stub, and years from now, I am going to tell my children and my grandchildren that I was part of this, the dawn of a new day in America.
Last but not least, I leave you a quote from good old Bill the Bard, quoted along with the rest of the speech by Nate Silver at 538.com:
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Go vote, y'all.