My Excellent adventure at the (multiple) polls!
I have never been more excited about voting in a Presidential election. I thought that the excitement I felt in 2004 was the best thing yet. But the excitement generated by this election has been unprecedented and remarkable. And that has been true by the long lines and wait times for people trying to cast their votes early in Mecklenburg County.
All last week, I drove past a particular early vote location and I always saw a small line. I kept saying “I’ll go tomorrow.” I started hearing about the wait times in other states and was thankful that wouldn’t be the case in Mecklenburg County. Boy, was I mistaken.
I started my vacation on October 29, so I knew I had plenty of time to vote. I thought I would arrive at the location close to my home and catch the mid afternoon time. I figured it wouldn’t be too bad. I arrived at the CPCC-North campus and saw a full parking lot, but no lines outside. I opened the door and saw a line, but thought, not too bad…at least I am not standing outside. The friendly young lady at the door promptly told me that I wasn’t at the end of the line…it was down the hall and around the corner. So I walked….and walked…around a corner…then another. I was shocked at the numbers of people. And the three hour wait.
So I left and decided to wait until the next day. Luckily, I looked up the hours of that location, because I had planned to mosey up to the location at 7:00 am. And would have been surprised to see the polls did not open until 11:00 am. So, the next morning, I decided to try another location first, which was the library off of Beatties Ford Road. I did not think it would be as busy.
And once again, I was wrong. And I was thrilled to be so wrong! In an area that many thought wouldn’t have a high voter turnout because of the urban African American population, the lines was longer than I would have ever imagined. I arrived around 10:00 a.m. to see the line out the building, down the street and around the corner. My heart swelled at the numbers of people, all African-American, waitng patiently in line to cast their ballot. I was about to get to end end of the line when I heard it was about a 2-3 hour wait.
So I jumped back in my car and headed back to the location near my office. The CPCC location on 7th Street had a line, but it didn’t seem as bad. I befriended the young lady who arrived just after I did, and we took bets of how long it would take. She had left the West Boulevard location after hearing the wait time was around two hours. We guessed our wait here would be about an hour. But then we started to notice that people were not really leaving the location and the line was not really moving. Then, we noticed people sitting down inside of the building. I saw colleagues running for Judge at this location, and they informed me it was an hour from the time you actually made it into the door. That was because they only had seven voting stations. Seven. But, one candidate told me that at a South Park location, they had at least 16 polling stations and to try there.
A few hours later, I headed that way since I would be in the area. This location, off of Tyvola Road was so busy, cars were stopped on the road just to turn into the driveway. But I figured, “how bad could it be?” Well, 20 minutes later I finally turned into the driveway, just to see a line of cars that went out of site. I couldn’t see the polling building, and apparently the 20+ cars ahead of mine were trying to find a place to park.
Fortunately I was able to do a three point turn and peel out of there! So, I headed back uptown to CPCC. There was a line, but it did not appear to be too bad. By then, I was determined to vote no matter how long it took. This time, the line was moving quicker, even though I knew I had another hour to wait once I finally made it inside. Again, I made friends with the person ahead of me and the person behind me with my tales of woe of trying to find a polling place with less than a two hour wait. And apparently that was the case most everywhere. Two other people joined in the conversation and told similar stories of lines snaked around buildings and several hour wait times.
Despite random bees that would not leave me alone, I was determined to make it inside and wait that extra hour. Occasionally a car would pass by and beep their horns. Several times a car passed by and someone would should “Vote Obama!” or “I voted for Obama!” out of the car window. After about an hour of waiting, it was like I was waiting to get into an exclusive party. The kindly elderly volunteer, whose name was Don, let a few people in at a time. Once we made it inside, I silently envied the people seated who were the next to disappear into the elevator to do go to the second floor to vote. Don would get the number from someone on his walkie-talkie, he would call for the next few voters and send for the elevator.
Each and every time, that group of four or five people all had the biggest smiles on their faces. They were all excited. They chatted about getting up to go cast their ballots. People from all walks of life, who probably would not really mingle in normal circumstances, all shared a common bond of doing their civic duty…and making history at the same time.
Once I made it inside, I busied myself with reading the sample ballot. By the fifth time I read it, I was tired of it. But by the time I made it to the actual seats inside, I opted to listed to my mp3 player to pass the time. Still, people around me chatted, there was laughter, and general good spirits. Small children waited patiently with their parents. I don’t think I heard anyone truly complain. Most people were glad to see so many people interested in the process.
I was impressed with the number of younger people waiting in the lines to vote. I think they will help make the difference in this election. They are the ones the pollsters have traditionally recognized as “likely voters.” The general excitement this election has generated is tremendous. People are willing to wait patiently for hours to take a few minutes to cast their ballots. Many of us all said they same thing. Thank God for early voting, because we could not imagine the chaos and pandemonium of those states that can only cast their ballots on one day.
Part of me wishes I had cast my ballot last week. But then, I would not have experienced such an excellent adventure today. It was worth the wait. And I will always remember this day. Just a few more days to the election. And if Barack wins, I will be one of thousands cheering and bursting with pride in Washington D.C. on Inauguration day.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Was able to put my vote in. The VFW center was utilized for the Voting Center. The line was long, but the wait wasn’t too bad, especially with everyone being in such positive spirits. That was impressive, because I guess I had expected everyone to be stone-faced–that definitely wasn’t the case. Nice to see everyone being positive, instead of the negativity of division that we keep hearing about in the media.
There were many people of the younger age brackets (21-30), and believe it or not, they were the majority.
On the humorous note: Joe The Plumber was there, too… and so was Elvis! LOL
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Yolanda,
Great website, I enjoyed your blogs. I’m a little late checking it out, you’ve done a great job. I’m so proud of you.
Charlynn