I voted!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, today I did something I have never done before. I voted, not absentee, not early, not in a district I had only lived in for six months, in the sleepy hamlet of Chappaqua, NY, the town in which I was raised.

I know I just went through a whole song and dance about how I wasn't going to get to vote today, but then I thought "Just because I don't live anywhere, doesn't mean I shouldn't vote somewhere." After all, I distinctly remember getting a walksheet in Iowa printed from the VAN that said, "Homeless corner of Dubuque and Davenport." If he can vote, so can I, and since my parents' house is my default permanent address, I felt justified.

I arrived to vote around 2pm and was surprised to find a line, albeit a short one. Not too shabby for a primary in a midterm year when the highest competitive race is Attorney General in a town as small as mine. (This was AFTER I figured out where I was going, because once I entered the building there were no signs indicating that voting was on the second floor.) THEN, and this is the best part, the woman hands me my ballot explains how to fill it out, and says "and then IF you want it to be a secret you put it in this folder here." Wait....IF?

Granted New York was trying out new voting machines (see my next post), but still...if I HAD been working this election, electric currents would have been shooting out my brain. Also, they didn't give me a sticker!

Still as I enjoyed a pumpkin spice latte on this beautiful autumn day, I felt particularly American after my first civilian voting experience.

Viva la Republic!

-Nance