Election Day

It's municipal election day in my town. There are three people running for mayor, and about a dozen people running for a couple of spots on the city council.

It's been said that the small, local elections make more of a difference in your daily life than the big Presidential ones. I can see how that could be true. The mayor and city council have direct control over how things work in my town, and they are much more accessible than the yahoos in D.C. If I have a complaint, I can go to the mayor's office and talk to him face to face. I can write a letter to a councilperson and get a reply from them, not from some lackey who sends a form letter and signs the senator's name. I can even go to church on Sunday and talk to one particular councilman directly. They are that accessible.

That's why it's a shame that more people don't turn up for local elections. It was great that I didn't have to wait in a long line to get my ballot this morning, but there really should have been a greater turnout. Maybe more people will come during the day. Let's hope so.

I've noticed that voting sites for municipal elections are often located in places other than your usual general election voting site. I guess they do this because fewer people turn out to municpal elections, and it's easier (and cheaper) to have one or two voting sites staffed by a handful of people, instead of the many normal voting sites staffed by many, many people. The changes can get confusing to people, I'm sure.

Speaking of people that get confused about location changes, there was this one guy who added a bit of humor to my voting this morning. I got to our city rec center and went to the appropriate table. As I was presenting my ID, an old man walked into the room, and started yelling, "How do you expect us to vote when we can't find you? I went over to the school this morning where I usually go and they told me to come over here! I tells ya, it's getting to be a pain just to find where to vote!" We all just looked at him, and then a poll worker showed him which table he needed to go to.

So then I voted, and it took me all of about a minute to check the boxes I wanted to.

As I was leaving, that same old guy was apparently also finished, and he made it to the door before I did. When he got there he stopped, turned around and said, "How do you expect us to vote when we can't find you? I went over to the school this morning where I usually go and they told me. . ."

I just hurried out of the rec center, chuckling to myself and thinking, "This is a re-run. I've seen this show before."

God Bless America.