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dreamsharkIt always gives my heart a lift walking to my local polling place, greeting my neighbors as they stream in from all directions, and casting my vote. This year was no different except there weren't as many of us as usual, due to all those people voting early (to "avoid the lines").
On my way to MLK Park I took this picture of a mighty oak to give me hope.
I only ran into one person I knew, due to the smaller than usual in-person turnout. But it was Garth, the ebullient old hippie who runs a weekly community drumming event on a nearby block, so that made up for all those older poll workers that weren't working this year. Garth and I agreed on how much we loved voting in person. Both of us were slightly disappointed that the right wing militia and ex-cops that have been threatening to hang around the polls sullenly intimidating voters had not appeared, at least not in our neighborhood. It turns out that both of us were looking forward to glaring at them as we marched past.
Instead, we have the usual cheerful Kingfield Neighborhood Association greeters with their fire pit, cheerful smiles and hot coffee. Which is much more uplifting, if less dramatic.
I entered the MLK park building at 11:00 am, where I found a short line. And by short, I mean 3 minutes.
11:03 AM. I entered the gym, which had about 36 people in it, counting poll workers. That sounds like more than it really is when the room is this large. I didn't come within 6 feet of anybody except the young lady who checked me in, and that took less than a minute. There was hand sanitizer. Everyone was masked. And I was out the door at 11:08 am. It was easy and safe and fun, and almost certainly the high point of what is going to be a very nerve-wracking 24 hours to come.
Only 428 voters had registered on the Precinct 10-7 tabulator, which is about 1/3 of what I would expect at this time of day in a presidential year. But one of the Kingfield greeters told me that over 4,000 people had voted early in the two Kingfield precincts total, and that 10-7 usually has a higher turnout than 10-6. So that probably means that 3000 people have voted so far in my little precinct. Yay!
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Date: 2020-11-03 08:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-03 10:45 pm (UTC)