Drama at the Polls

Last night I went to vote after work. After first going to the wrong place but discovering my district number while I was there, I made my way over to the Mary Mother of God church in Hillsborough, NJ. The first person I see is one of my ex-fellow teachers in the English Department at RVCC, about my age. Had barely talked to her, never liked her. Ugly vibe from the start, won't get into it. Whatever and anyway, I'm over it, I say hello and she remembers me. I explain my situation: not sure if I am officially registered because I mailed in my registration form three days late. I had slacked. She begins looking up my name, and then this old bitch sitting to the right of her points her finger at her rigidly and says, "You are not allowed to look people up. You’ve already been caught and told not to do this. You do it one more time, and you’ll have to leave." Well, well. So Old Bitch asks me my name. I explain my situation. My name is not on the list. During the weekend while I was in Connecticut, Kat had told me about the provisional ballot, that I would be able to fill one out if my name didn’t appear on the list at the polls.

OB: Your name is not on the list.

Me (consciously playing half-ignorant): Is there anything I can do about that?

OB (rigidly): No. You can’t vote.

Me: Are you sure there isn’t anything I can do about that?

OB (rigidly): No. You can’t vote.

Me (attitude shift > firmly): I was told that I can fill out a provisional ballot.

OB and this other old lady next to her look at each other obviously thinking, "Oh God, we have to do this, I hate doing this, this is such a pain in the ass." I continue to stare firmly at both of them, their eyes side-glancing at me. They know. They begin to whisper. OB complains; new old lady says, "We have to let her vote."

New old lady relents hesitantly, though not as defiantly as OB. She hands me the provisional ballot, explaining what I need to do.

This lit a fire under my cheeks. No doubt other people are more knowledgeable than I am about the voting process. I admit ignorance, and I admit shame for not being more politically aware and knowledgeable than I am. I voted for the first time in 2000. My family never spoke of politics, government, the way our country is run, so the whole business didn’t rise to importance for me until I became more aware of the world outside my head, which was recently for I am a space cadet. Frankly, I still think like most things this business is comedy, but I consider it important to put in my effort against the continuation of Bush, or to at least counteract one such vote in my household. There probably were others in my position, whether because they slacked or because of some foul-up in the registration system (for example, the guy in line behind me) who didn't get bitchy back to the OB and weren't, then, at least able to try to vote. Just another "voting machine" broken down, I guess.

And an aside: "In South Dakota, a judge ordered supporters of Republican Senate candidate John Thune to stop following Native Americans to the polls and writing down their license numbers." I hope the families of the only two people I know from South Dakota were not in on this, Mr Shirley and Mr King. Following Native Americans is not nice.