John Greenleaf Whittier’s “The Poor Voter on Election Day.”
To-day, of all the weary year,
A king of men am I.
To-day, alike are great and small,
The nameless and the known;
My palace is the people’s hall,
The ballot-box my throne!
The rich is level with the poor,
The weak is strong to-day;
And sleekest broadcloth counts no more
Than homespun frock of gray.
To-day let pomp and vain pretence
My stubborn right abide;
I set a plain man’s common sense
Against the pedant’s pride.
The wide world has not wealth to buy
The power in my right hand!
Bravo, Paul! I’ve got on my bright pink shirt, and I’m heading out the door right now!
Women of the U.S., remember what Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, Inez Mulholland, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and many other women suffered through to give us our right to voice our opinions in the voting booth… please don’t let your voice go unheard!!!
Yep. Off we go, to cancel each other out at the polls. (or so he thinks…secret strategy: my 18 year old first time voter, sent her absentee in yesterday.)
I’ll be off to my polling place in a few minutes. I’m bringing a book to read in what I anticipate will be a long line. I am also bringing my voter registration notice against the possibility that I might be challenged.
My first presidential vote was cast for Hubert Humphrey against Richard Nixon in 1972. I had long hair and a 32" waist. I now have short hair and a somewhat larger waist.
Voted last week via absentee ballot in my not-quite-a-sure-thing state of Washington. Tonight I’ll be watching the coverage on TV - too bad the Eastern polling stations don’t close till 10 or 11 PM my time, forget about being awake for the west coast closing…!
Hi izz… when I had it in my sig line it was hyperlinked, but I guess you couldn’t tell because of the color.
I just got back from my polling place-- the Atlanta media had me all set to be in line for at least three hours, but I walked right in and was done in about 5 minutes. This was because my legal last name fell between the letters J-Q… all those poor people whose names started with A-I are still waiting.
Watched as some people were forced to leave the voting ground for posting flyers for one of the parties. (Is it that hard to stay 100 feet away? I’m all for freedom of speach, but come on.)
Over all more crouded than usual but the lines moved. Maybe next time I should be a voting judge. “Four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo -
use in that order.” – Ed Howdershelt
I am back from voting. No challenge and no line, for my precinct anyway. One of the other precincts had a line of about 20 waiting. We are still using the punch-card ballots so I was careful to examine my ballot for wayward chads before leaving the voting booth. Total time was about 6-7 minutes. I’m thinking that the crowds will start showing up towards the late afternoon when folks get out of work. I’m layed off at the moment so I could go anytime. I plan to watch the Daily Show’s election coverage tonight. It should be a stitch.
Mike
I also submitted this on someone elses topic but am so steamed I’m repeating it here:
Someone sounding a lot like John Kerry with a bad head cold has been sending voters a recorded telephone message asking for their help in winning on this election day and promising all of the usual stuff that politicians promise if they get elected. Then at the end of this recorded announcement, John Kerry with the bad head cold says that, because of an anticipated high voter turn out, the polls will remain open two hours after their normal closing time. The voice goes on to suggest that it would be helpful to the poll place workers if you would avoid the crowds and go to the polls during this newly extended time frame. I’m a registered democrat and couldn’t figure out why John Kerry would be trying to keep me from voting for him. Maybe he was high on Nyquil.
You don’t always need a bomb to disrupt an election.
I just voted. This election, which would have been otherwise a depressing choice for me between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, was livened up and made exciting by the fact that my partner of 12 years is running for public office for the first time! San Francisco School Board. He has a very outside chance of winning, but he does want to enter local politics, and this is how you build a base–by running for office. We can hardly wait for the results to start coming in so we can see how he did. Wish us luck!
The voice goes on to suggest that it would be helpful to the poll place workers if you would avoid the crowds and go to the polls during this newly extended time frame. I’m a registered democrat and couldn’t figure out why John Kerry would be trying to keep me from voting for him. 