Tue Nov 2nd, 2004 at 12:22:59 GMT
At 6:30, when I went in to cast my vote, there was a long line of people waiting - to register. That was the one difference. Everything else as usual, the same earnest, sober local grandparents and soccer moms and dads who man the polls every time, with cups of Dunkin Donuts coffee clutched fiercely in hand, quietly signing new people up, and crossing us registered residents off of the lists, with, as usual, no challenges, no demands for ID or anything. Tell them your name, help them spell it, make sure they cross off you and not one of your relatives.
The people waiting to register mostly white, blue-collar, men and women in this old French-Canadian neighborhood, but a handful of Asian and African-American faces too, as usual.
Outside, a handful of campaigners with signs, mostly local races, and a cop to guard the crosswalk instead of the usual crossing guards; frost on the car windows and a morning half sun, half charcoal clouds, an omen so obvious as to be meaningless, like the Tarot cast by Loveandlight at Steve Gilliard's yesterday, change and warning and potential for disaster - or recovery amid difficulties.
267 people had voted by the time I put my card in the slot. A steady stream, in this tiny ward that has less than 9000 total population, in a half hour. The ACT volunteer, here from California, I talked to outside said that he'd been told by senior citizens that this was the first time they'd be voting in 40 years, people who had not voted since Johnson are making sure that they GOTV today.
The day is still early. Perhaps it will get ugly, as it never has here in my memory; when our GOP cheated last time, in 2002, it was at outside instigation, and with outside help. We believe in democracy here, like I said after Sunday's rally.
(When I posted about that at dKos yesterday morning, only 3 people commented. But 300+ had downloaded it, when I got back from work. The silent but interested majority is much larger than anyone ever realizes. The rally turnout, btw, was officially 13,000 people.)
After work today, I'll try to get more pictures of poll turnout around here. And I'll be throwing crows on the grill and tripe pot pie in the oven, to be shared among Bush supporters, Freeper minions, and the gloomy Eyores who have been so happily prophesying the apathy of the "sheeple"--!
