I Voted Today
My husband had the day off from work, and we went to vote early.
The early voting in our county is all in Chattanooga, so we drove about 20 miles to a local mall. Our election commission had been suggesting that the best time to vote was in the morning as soon as the doors opened, which was 10 a.m. We walked in shortly after that time and couldn't believe the length of the line. It stretched from the door of the voting room through half the mall!
But we were determined to vote today, so we got in line and luckily it moved quickly. Since it was a weekday, there were mostly retired folks - alot of people 50 and older. I felt sorry for some of them because there was no place to sit down without losing a place in line, and some of them were obviously getting tired. But no one was complaining. The demographic of the crowd was mostly white, but the man in line ahead of us was a black minister.
Most young people seem to be voting early at the election commission which is near the university. My daughter and many of her friends have already voted there, and my son came home yesterday and got his voter's card so he could go next.
After all these months, it was a thrill to see the names of all the candidates on the ballot! There is nothing as wonderful or empowering as voting, and no matter who your candidate is, I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!
Update: I came across the polling data for Monday, October 20th. We were two voters out of 1,470 at the mall. Sounds like the other two polling places were just as busy.
More than 22,000 men and women - including 697 nursing home residents and 1,897 absentee voters - already have cast ballots in the upcoming presidential race, according to information provided Monday evening by the Hamilton County Election Commission.
Officials said 4,395 people voted Monday. Of those, 1,232 cast ballots at Brainerd Recreation Center, 1,496 at election commission headquarters on Amnicola Highway, and 1,470 at Northgate Mall. In addition, 197 absentee ballots were received.
During the five days that early voting has been allowed, a total 19,847 people have gone to one of the three available sites to cast ballots, according to election commission data.
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_137470.asp
The early voting in our county is all in Chattanooga, so we drove about 20 miles to a local mall. Our election commission had been suggesting that the best time to vote was in the morning as soon as the doors opened, which was 10 a.m. We walked in shortly after that time and couldn't believe the length of the line. It stretched from the door of the voting room through half the mall!
But we were determined to vote today, so we got in line and luckily it moved quickly. Since it was a weekday, there were mostly retired folks - alot of people 50 and older. I felt sorry for some of them because there was no place to sit down without losing a place in line, and some of them were obviously getting tired. But no one was complaining. The demographic of the crowd was mostly white, but the man in line ahead of us was a black minister.
Most young people seem to be voting early at the election commission which is near the university. My daughter and many of her friends have already voted there, and my son came home yesterday and got his voter's card so he could go next.
After all these months, it was a thrill to see the names of all the candidates on the ballot! There is nothing as wonderful or empowering as voting, and no matter who your candidate is, I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!
Update: I came across the polling data for Monday, October 20th. We were two voters out of 1,470 at the mall. Sounds like the other two polling places were just as busy.
More than 22,000 men and women - including 697 nursing home residents and 1,897 absentee voters - already have cast ballots in the upcoming presidential race, according to information provided Monday evening by the Hamilton County Election Commission.
Officials said 4,395 people voted Monday. Of those, 1,232 cast ballots at Brainerd Recreation Center, 1,496 at election commission headquarters on Amnicola Highway, and 1,470 at Northgate Mall. In addition, 197 absentee ballots were received.
During the five days that early voting has been allowed, a total 19,847 people have gone to one of the three available sites to cast ballots, according to election commission data.
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_137470.asp