A great morning

November 04, 2008

John Deal/via e-mail

My wife and I arrived at the Houston-Love Memorial Library at 6:30 a.m., and about 20 people were ahead of us.  The line quickly lengthened to about 250+ plus before the doors were opened at 7:00.  We entered, voted and were out in 12 minutes.  Very good!  As we left I took the attached pictures for my file but thought you might have some use.

It was a great morning to be in such a “colorful” line with good Dothan folk of all ages who were exercising their right to vote.  I sincerely hope that line continues throughout the day as people vote to elect the next President and Vice President of the U.S.A.  What a memorable day!

John Deal

Voting at the Houston County Farm Center

Ken Tuck/Dothan Eagle

I voted around 10:45 this morning at the Farm Center. There were only four people in front of me. However, that wasn’t the case earlier in the morning. One of the poll workers told me the line stretched out the door to the Cottonwood Highway. “It was terrible,“ he said. I replied, “No, that’s actually great. People are getting out and voting.“ I knew he didn’t mean it was terrible that many people were voting, it was just a terribly long line. We laughed about it.

Everyone’s ID was being checked and everything went smoothly. I was No. 408 in the P-Z line. It was great seeing people getting out to vote today, including a fellow Eagle employee.

BTW, I hear Starbucks is giving away free coffee to people who vote today. We’re gathering a group from the Eagle to go get our java fix. We’ll need it for tonight.

Lines, lines, lines – today, they’ll do ya good

By Ebony Horton

Ozark had its share of long voting lines at the Civic Center this morning. What appeared greater than the lines, however, was the enthusiasm from many of the voters.

There were wheelchairs, crutches, pajamas, coffee cups, lawn chairs - anything to help sustain voters while they stood in the lines. My 80-year-old grandfather only asked for his cane (though I took a lawn chair just in case) as we waited for about 30 minutes.

He was too excited for this time in history. I’m sure he could have passed out twice and still gotten up to vote while we were there.

There were also others, like my 24-year-old high school friend Namon Flowers, who had never voted before but came to the civic center with his young son to exercise his right.

Please go vote today, despite how long the lines may be. And if you haven’t registered, go ahead TODAY to your county registrar’s office to register for the next elections to include the governor, which I think are in 2010.

The truth is our forefathers, black, white, English and even before “Taxation without Representation” have paved the way for this opportunity. Even if you feel your vote doesn’t count, not voting is almost like giving up $1 million in my opinion - it’s just that despicable to me to not exercise your right to vote.

Take care and happy voting!

I voted. It took 5 minutes.

By Whitney McHugh

There’s a secret to voting at Doug Tew. Don’t wait in the outside line if your last name falls between G-Z.

As I settled in for a long wait outside the center about 10:30, a man stopped to talk to the woman in front of me. He was teasing her about his quick voting. I asked his secret.

His answer - last name not A-F.

I got out of line, walked inside the center and right up to the G-P table. There was no line. Poll workers took my ID, marked off my name and gave me a ballot. I was out of there in five minutes.

Only the A-F table had a line. There were no voters at the other tables, just poll workers

There may be a disproportionate number of people in my district with A-F names. But I suspect many of those waiting in the long line outside don’t realize the G-Z’s can go ahead and vote.

As I got my ‘I Voted’ sticker, the boxes showed 1,251 ballots had been cast.

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.