Voting agony

[javasaurus]

I've never had to wait more than a few minutes to vote before, but today more than made up for that! I pulled into the parking lot at 8:55, and saw the line wrapping around Bowie's Evangel Cathedral. I saw BE (who left home 15 minutes before me) in line, and she offered to come with me to the end of the line. And we waited. And waited. We waited in the sun. Then we waited in the shade of the enormous church. Then we made it into the church itself, which had a wailing electronic whistle because the doors were being kept open. And the lobby of the church was full of people waiting. So we waited. We talked with others in line. And we waited. I had to pee, but I waited. BE wanted some water. But we waited. We got to the front of the line at 11:05, and they stopped taking people so they could make a count. Grrrr... So we waited. But by 11:25 we had voted, and we decided to stop for lunch before heading to work.

I wonder how many people will decide it's not worth waiting in line for two-and-a-half hours if they have a job to get to, kids to take care of, etc. I don't know if they needed more judges, more machines, better training, or what. But two-and-a-half hours is really a problem in this so-called modern, civilized society.

I can't thank BE enough for joining me in line, even though it cost her a bit of extra time.

Comments

[blueeowyn.livejournal.com]

Let's see, I was around 15 minutes ahead of you leaving the house, maybe 10 minutes ahead of you in line (once I saw the line, I went back to the car and got a second book). I was there for around 2:45. 10 minutes isn't a big deal in that scheme. Though it did mean that I was behind the 11:00 count instead of in front of it. However, I don't think the count slowed us down more than a couple of minutes because they started checking people in just as the 'counted' group was finishing getting to the machines. The biggest delay seemed to be the distribution of the alphabet.

However, I enjoyed the time hanging out with you this morning and I am proud to have voted (and very glad that I have an understanding office!).v

[squire-liz.livejournal.com]

Hey if I had to be stuck in line, I can think of much worse things than being stuck with either of you two :) Glad you finally made it. I hope my experience isn't quite as long.

[blueeowyn.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the nice comment.

I hope yours goes MUCH faster.

[squire-liz.livejournal.com]

I was lucky, It was only about half an hour start to finnish. At that the L-R line I was in was about 4 times the length of any other line.