Now the Wait...

Cheney goes hunting while the rest of us (hopefully) go voting. He’s taking his daughter with him too. I hope she stays close enough to him so he can’t swing his gun in her direction.

My polling place was lively this morning in the heart of ghetto land. Lots and lots of people showing up to voice their opinions about our leaders and prospective leaders.

We have new scanning equipment in place. Basically it’s color in the big box next to your choice....it can give you writer’s cramp. Make sure your mark is very very dark, and then take the oversized ballot to the scanner and feed it in....simple...If you do it right, an American flag pops up on the screen and starts waving at you.

It was easy, once I got past this young man who was supposed to be checking identification. He couldn’t find my name, although all the poll worker women greeted me by name when I walked in. He said he was tired. The elderly lady next to him looked ready to bat him over his head, but instead took the book away from him and turned right to my name, even told me my address. They do know me here.

I was kind of surprised that there weren’t more poll watchers outside. We vote at the Urban League building on reading road in Avondale, a Cincinnati neighborhood. It was raining and there was one lonely, albeit big guy of African American persuasion, wearing a Steve Chabot sign around his barrel of a chest. He tried to hand me some reading material.

Since it was raining, I didn’t engage. His choice of candidate told me it wouldn’t be worth the mental exercise to talk to him anyway. So I hurried in to get out of the rain.

In this run up to the election, I have been worried about my parents, both of whom are now in their late 70s. They always vote. I was concerned about my mom, given these new rules about having identification and what types are valid. My mother no longer drives and hasn’t for several years. She is also supremely computer phobic. My dad is too, but not as much as mom. I was worried that the new laws might hinder them.

I shouldn’t have worried. My mother and father are known in their precinct, just like I’m known in mine. No poll worker is going to stop my parents from voting.

My mom was actually pretty geeked about today. She used to work elections when I was a kid. I think if her health were better she would probably still work there.

My father hates everything republican, period. So I know who he voted for without even asking.

My father doesn’t curse or use bad words for any reason, except when he talks about black republicans. So, if my dad is any indication, Ken Blackwell may be in trouble.

But we’re just one family...we all vote...all of my sisters and their kids....even our marine who is currently somewhere in the middle east.

We will be heard, even if no one is listening.

Now we wait....