wow, guys. like, for realz. first of all, if you don’t feel like reading about my adventures, you can click here to go straight through to the LIVE BLOG. but if you WOULD like to hear my awesome story, then get ready.
so as some of you may know, this was my first voting experience. yeah yeah, i totally pussed out in 2004, but come on, a democrat in massachusetts? there wasn’t a ton i could do. not that being a democrat in new york is that big of a change, but this election feels just a liiiiittle bit more relevant/important/life-changing to me. okay, so needless to say, i was pretty excited to vote. so excited, in fact, that i ended up waking up twenty minutes before my alarm went off this morning. it was 545 am.
luckily, the polls in ny open at 6 am, so i decided to deal with missing the last few minutes of slumber, and just head over to the polls (one block away). there was already a line out the door, but i had come prepared with my crossword, and it was surprisingly not totally crappy weather, so i was okay. anyway, i’ll skip to the important stuff.
i didn’t have my handy little registration direct-mail thing with me, so i went over to the district book guys, who told me that i’m in district 50, and to head to the line all to the way to the right, which i do. 7 minutes later, the guy comes up to me and says he accidentally put me in the wrong line, and that i should be all the way over to the left. luckily there wasn’t too much of a line inside (just out, i guess), so that was just fine. i get to the table, and they can’t find my name in the booklet thing. this bums me out because it means i have to fill out a provisional ballot, but hey, i’m still doing my part, right? i just assumed this happened because i sent in my registration form about 8 minutes before it was due on the 10th.
so i’m outta there in 45 minutes, which is sort of bittersweet because it gives me just enough time to NOT go back to sleep before work. oh well. so i tell este what district we’re in so he doesn’t have to wait, too, and i’m on my way out. two hours later (and four hours after i vote), i get a phone call from este. turns out, we’re not in district 50. we’re in district 49. apparently este had gone through the same shenanigans with the no-name-in-the-book deal, and was really disappointed at casting a prov ballot, so when he got home, he double-checked his registration guy, and right there, printed on the card, was the 49. SO LAME.
because he had some extra time before going to work and the fact that he was still around the corner, he went back to the polling place and settled everything, ripping up the paper ballot and doing that shit right. unfortunately, i was at work, and planned to be until later in the day. FORtunately, however, i decided to stroll by on my way home from work, just to see what was up with the wait, and there was none! the place was practically empty. so i popped in, explained my story to about 4 different people (who understood in varying degrees), got an (unprompted) apology from the guy who f’ed up my s in the morning, ripped up my paper ballot, and pulled the crap out of that lever!
so all in all, it worked out. :) here’s the link again if you want it: ELECTION LIVE. come check it out! last time, there were TWO WHOLE PEOPLE i’m not related to! it was awesome.
