My voting experience

I just got back from voting, and the wonderful catharsis of pulling the lever for the Kerry/Edwards ticket. The first sign we saw of the emotional day was a woman with the cane, making her way down Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, away from the polling place, a wide grin on her face. It was 6:20 a.m. "It seems like 8, there are so many people here," a poll worker said as we stood in line.

I live in a neighborhood that is so Democratic that a Kerry/Edwards/Schumer sign actually survived on a telephone poll for several days. Looking around at the crowd, I saw young people, black and white people, gay people, straight people, everybody happy and pumped up. There were two guys in the line behind me: One was white and dressed in working clothes, with an American flag key chain. "A Republican vote?," I asked myself. The second was a black guy in his 50s, a beefy guy with graying hair. He produced his ID for the poll workers with a flourish. "If you have to show your ID then everybody will show theirs," the workers said to him.

I walked out of the booth, smiled, and pumped my fist in the air. "You have a good day, ladies," the black guy who had shown his ID said. "Yes, ladies, have a good day," the white guy with the American flag key chain said.

As we walked down the street we passed another lady with a cane, an older black woman who was moving with snail's speed toward the polls. "Did you vote?" she shouted at us. "This is the DAY," we shouted back.

"It is the DAY," she yelled, "and I hope we're ALL smiling at the end of it."

I went early and usually I'm the only one there (the neighborhood has a lot of retirees in it, so they can vote whenever they want). But, today, there were lots of people milling around. I'm really excited to hear about the turnout as well as the results. People were smiling and waving to each other. As I was leaving, I was behind a young couple and they both turned and grinned at me. I have a good feeling. :)

thx!