Election Day

Lori had figured that we would get up early and vote before I took her to work this morning. Well that didn't work. There was an amazing amount of voters there before us. Our polling place has a large parking lot, two drives. The parking lot was full, cars were parked on both sides of both drives, and there were many cars parked along the edge of the road. I estimate more than a hundred cars. Perhaps that would not be so many in the cities, but here in rural Michigan, that is a bunch of cars on election day! One recent election I voted about 4 PM and I was voter number 39. The obvious conclusion is that this election turnout will be Huge! Let's face it people around here don't get excited by elections, but it sure looks like they are excited today.

I talked with a couple in McDonald's this morning and they had spent 45 minutes in line before they had a chance to vote. But they did vote. (and canceled each other out by the way) They said the line was much shorter when they were done voting than at 7 AM. Lori and I will vote this evening. I am not checking on the results until after we vote. Not even the results from those small New Hampshire towns that are all done voting by now. Frankly I don't want to know ahead of time who and what the winners will be. I feel that knowing the predicted results will make me feel that my vote is not important.

While everyone maintains that my vote is very important...I often feel that voting is a waste of time. That is my cynicism taking hold of my thinking. I know that. But I still feel that way sometimes. (well, maybe I feel that way often) It is hard to maintain a positive attitude when so many decisions made lately have negative effects on my life and livelyhood. I try to maintain a positive attitude, really. Honest. That is very difficult to do though.

I do feel that a large turnout of voters will be a good thing for this country. Perhaps it will make the lobbyists and those of that ilk sit up and take notice. We the people need to take control of our lives and our country again. One way to do that is to vote in all elections. Huge turnouts of voters will make a difference. For that difference to become permanent though, there needs to be huge amount of voters always. We need to make our voices heard! Even when our voices are disagreeing with each other.