Why didn’t I vote absentee?

November 04, 2008

By Whitney McHugh

On NPR this morning, many of the stories were about long lines at the polls. There were brief interviews with voters and poll workers in every time zone. And everyone said there were long lines at the poll.

I drove to my polling place - Doug Tew Community Center - while listening to stories about long wait times. I hoped that by some miracle voting at Doug Tew would be like it always is - in and out in about five minutes.

No luck.

The line at 8 a.m. this morning stretched across the building back to the swimming pool. The parking lot was full. Cars were parked on the streets. There was no fast voting this morning.

I rolled my window down, took a couple photos of the line and headed to work. No time to wait this morning.

My mother talked to a poll worker yesterday to find out the best times to vote. Generally 10-11:30 a.m. and 1:30-3 p.m. are slow at the poll. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but with such high voter turnout there may not be any slow times.

Why didn’t I vote absentee?

Getting out to vote

By Whitney McHugh

As I dropped my daughter off at elementary school this morning, one of the school’s staff members was encouraging parents to go vote.

She had already made one unsuccessful attempt to vote at Walton Park. The line was so long she was unable to cast a ballot before she had to be at work. She’s planning to try again at lunch. And if that doesn’t work, will head to the polls a third time once schools ends.

That says a lot about this election ... that someone would wait at the polls three times in order to vote.