I’m back from voting in Charlestown Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania (District 6). I met Bob Roggio’s wife at the polling station and had a nice long chat with her about her husband’s contest against Jim Gerlach and about the phenomenon of Barack Obama. They’re counting on huge coattails because they’ve been badly outspent (even on the History Channel). I wore my commie-red ACORN t-shirt that says ‘The People Shall Rule’. After I voted I stood in front of the McCain table out in the hallway, proudly displaying my shirt and watching the GOoPer’s blood-pressure visibly rise. It was my small piece of revenge for the massive maligning of a proud organization that does nothing worse than advocate for the poor.
My precinct has 3,200 voters and over 1,500 of them had voted before noon. They could be headed for 90% turnout. The lines were divvied up alphabetically. It just so happened that no one other than me was there with a last name between Le-Na, so I was in and out quickly. Other people had to wait in a line of twenty or more.
We use paper ballots with optical scanners (but no confirming paper). There were no reported problems with the scanners. They told me that they had already been emptied of ballots once. I was #251 on my particular machine. I had the option of voting straight ticket, but I wanted the pleasure of voting for Obama-Biden, so I filled in all the ovals (straight-ticket). The only thing on the ballot, other than candidates, was a proposal for the state to borrow $400,000,000 to rebuild the water system.
So far today, I’ve been contacted by Michelle Obama (by email) and Gerlach’s wife (by phone). I obviously talked to Roggio’s wife in person. Bill Clinton called me last night. Michelle’s email gave me five or six names and numbers of voters in my neighborhood that she wanted me to call. I will do that in a bit.
How’s your day going?
