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Okay, that was a very silly fear
Nov. 7th, 2006 11:07 amI confessed to Richard that I had developed a terrible fear that after all the buildup I would somehow just forget to vote. Yeah, right, like THAT was possible!
My polling place was its usual charming tableau of all-American civil liberty in action. As always, I ran into at least one neighbor as I went in the door. Checking in was as easy as ever, although the election judge didn't recognize me this time (like the one at the primary election did). On the up side, it was nice to see a few younger faces among the election judges instead of just the same older ladies that have memorized the entire voter roll. Apparently in anticipation of higher-than-normal turnout, they had added the option of sitting at tables to fill in ballots in case all the rickety little blue stands were full (they were and I did). At 9:45 in the morning, I was #353 in my precinct to vote. Considering that my precinct is about 2 blocks by 4 blocks in size, I think that's a pretty good turnout for the first 2 hours of polling.
I voted straight DFL where possible, skipped the judges, and made a not very well-informed set of choices for school board based entirely on the candidate essays in the Strib Voter's Guide. It was not an impressive lineup this year. With 4 slots and 6 candidates, it came down to picking two to vote AGAINST. I chose not to vote for Christopher Clark, who appeared to have no qualifications whatsoever, and Chris Stewart because he is director of a "faith-based" organization of some kind and because his top priority is "orderly classrooms." Not that I'm in favor of disorderly classrooms, but that just sounded too much like one of those Traditional Values types. Is classroom disorder really a big problem in Minneapolis schools? It certainly didn't seem to be when my kids were in school, which wasn't all that long ago.
As usual, I was unprepared for the Soil and Water Commissioner decision, so I skipped it. Too bad, since it seems to be one of the most competitive races. I'm still trying to figure out why I'm being asked to vote for SAWC in both District 1 and District 3. You'd think that any particular voter would be in one district or the other, wouldn't you? Seems kinda fishy to me (no pun intended).
My polling place was its usual charming tableau of all-American civil liberty in action. As always, I ran into at least one neighbor as I went in the door. Checking in was as easy as ever, although the election judge didn't recognize me this time (like the one at the primary election did). On the up side, it was nice to see a few younger faces among the election judges instead of just the same older ladies that have memorized the entire voter roll. Apparently in anticipation of higher-than-normal turnout, they had added the option of sitting at tables to fill in ballots in case all the rickety little blue stands were full (they were and I did). At 9:45 in the morning, I was #353 in my precinct to vote. Considering that my precinct is about 2 blocks by 4 blocks in size, I think that's a pretty good turnout for the first 2 hours of polling.
I voted straight DFL where possible, skipped the judges, and made a not very well-informed set of choices for school board based entirely on the candidate essays in the Strib Voter's Guide. It was not an impressive lineup this year. With 4 slots and 6 candidates, it came down to picking two to vote AGAINST. I chose not to vote for Christopher Clark, who appeared to have no qualifications whatsoever, and Chris Stewart because he is director of a "faith-based" organization of some kind and because his top priority is "orderly classrooms." Not that I'm in favor of disorderly classrooms, but that just sounded too much like one of those Traditional Values types. Is classroom disorder really a big problem in Minneapolis schools? It certainly didn't seem to be when my kids were in school, which wasn't all that long ago.
As usual, I was unprepared for the Soil and Water Commissioner decision, so I skipped it. Too bad, since it seems to be one of the most competitive races. I'm still trying to figure out why I'm being asked to vote for SAWC in both District 1 and District 3. You'd think that any particular voter would be in one district or the other, wouldn't you? Seems kinda fishy to me (no pun intended).
