Voting in the Midterm

There were a lot of cars in the library parking lot this morning.  It was an hour before the building would be open for business; we were all there to vote.

I was second in line, much to my delight.  I've never had company when I voted before.  I greeted the Poll Worker with a smile; she and several of the others in the room have been election day fixtures since I've been voting in Tucson.  The Chief Inspector is an old friend.  We laughed about disagreeing on everything except how wonderful it is to vote.

I had to wait for an open booth; there were citizens occupying the dozen or so plastic outposts of democracy.  I was glad to wait.  The woman handing me my ballot had another familiar face.  We were both delighted to see the steady stream of voters since we opened this morning. 

I walked, I opened my pen, I filled in my circles.  I took a moment to breathe the air.  I deposited the long cardstock through the slot in the Ballot Box, smiled at the lady who's always manning the front door, accepted my sticker and left.

There were many of us sporting stickers.  Facebook was full of them. So was the grocery store.  Two  of us playing Hand and Foot wore them; the other two waxed eloquent on the virtues of early voting. 

I came home and watched the East Coast results.  Joe Manchin won and Florida turned its back on Tallahassee's mayor and Beto came oh-so-very-close and I was almost really sad. We turned from politics to basketball and ooh-ed and ah-ed over a Duke team even Big Cuter, the most loyal Hoya, says he likes.  The score was lop-sided and the pull was too strong; I took the remote and went back to politics.

The website for local election results was obvious:  results.arizona.vote.  The Secretary of State's page redirected me there, and for the first half hour or so it updated itself on my phone, putting McSally and Sinema within a few thousand votes of one another.  Then it froze.  And it froze on Lenore the Lenovo.  The iPad is juiceless and useless. 

I'm tired and I want to go to bed.  MSNBC says our Senate race is too close to call. My friends Daniel and Randy and Daniel's sister, Alma, have all been reelected.  The proposal to expand educational vouchers was defeated but the money to Fix Our Roads is losing.   

I'm a little bit happy and a little bit sad.  Isn't that the way democracy ought to be?