Daily Office:
Tuesday
¶ Prime: I’ve just heard from a neighbor — all right, Joe — that it took almost two hours to vote this morning. The line stretched so far around the block that it almost met itself.
In this morning’s Times, Adam Nagourney writes about how different this campaign has been, especially with regard to the Internet. We’ll find out later today what kind of a difference it made in the outcome.
¶ Sext: Here’s something that I just got wind of: a PBS Poll asking listeners to vote on Sarah Palin’s qualifications. It appears that convervatives had advance notice of this poll, and have been flooding the site with “Yes” votes. The result will be that PBS listeners think that Ms Palin is qualified to serve as Vice President — unless you do your part!
¶ Vespers: With less than an hour to go before the first polls close, I’m keeping busy with other things but keeping this page at the ready, to follow the states turning red and blue.
Oremus…
§ Prime. The feeling that Barack Obama is going to win this election has almost offset, in recent days, the sense that we’re all in some ghastly horror film about the collapse from within of the United States. But not quite. Maybe tomorrow…
§ Sext. On my way to the voting booth, I nearly succumbed to a psychotic panic attack, convinced that my entry would be blocked in some way or other. (In a list of a hundred things that I do badly, standing in line is in the top ten.) As a result, I didn’t take any pictures, or even clock the experience. But I don’t think that Kathleen and I were away from the apartment for more than forty minutes altogether.
§ Vespers. One fun thing — really! — has been to follow the vote count at the top of my Facebook home page. When I first tuned into it this morning, the number stood at 1.4 million. It’s now up to 3.2. I wonder if Facebook will do an “exit” poll, at the end of the day?
On my way to a doctor’s appointment shortly after noon, I passed a line of people on First Avenue, at 83rd Street. The line was not long, but I’d never seen anything like it. I don’t remember seeing a line at the movie theatre two blocks to the north. Despite the fact that this is the most densely-populated congressional district in the United States, lines are uncommon. I have never, in nearly thirty years of voting in Yorkville, seen lines outside polling places.
It appears that the folks who couldn’t wait to get to the polls this morning were the ones who had to wait longest to vote. At Fossil Darling’s location (in his own apartment building), the police officer showed up with the wrong key, and the building maintenance people had to jimmy the lock open. Cool, huh? No wonder I had a psychotic meltdown.
5:50AM : arrived at my polling place (lobby of my bldg) : I am about number 25 in line
6AM : no police officer to unlock booth
6:10AM : I am on the phone to the Election Board when he saunters in.
6:15AM : the morons announce the key does not work. There are 50 people on line.
6:46AM : I reported the officer, the incident to the Elecftion Board.
6:47AM : voting begins because our building’s excellent maintenance dept jimmied the lock.
7:12AM : finally vote, pull all the Democratic levers, leave, forgetting the Proposition, but as it did not have to do with a bond deal I am not terribly upset
I had the same anxiety for weeks about voting, that my registration wouldn’t be there, or that I would get flummoxed by the CT forms. I even dreamed (a Freudian wish fulfillment dream) that my polling place was in the bottom of my building (Fossil Darling!). It was all smooth at St. Mary’s Parish, and my Norwalk neighbors were about 90% African American. The mood was quiet and confident. I have never felt proud or excited to vote but I was this time. We got up at 5, arrived at 6, and were done in 25 minutes. It was breeze, and a relief. Literally weeks of anxiety to be replaced by cautious euphoria.