Three Hours to get my Peach
October 31st, 2008By Monica F. Helms
(Sung to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme.)
“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a faithful vote,
That started in this Southern State, on a day to wear a coat.This girl is a mighty Democrat, who’s never, ever late,
But, standing in that line that day, was a three hour wait,
A three hour wait.”
Somehow, that song came to mind when I finally saved my selections on the computer and got my “I am a Georgia Voter” peach, three hours to the minute from when I first stood in line. In about three-quarters of the country, states have initiated early voting and Georgia is one of them.
The news told many stories about long lines and hours of waiting before people could get to vote. On Monday, October 27, is some parts of Georgia, people waited for SEVEN HOURS to vote and in other parts, they waited TEN HOURS. Tuesday and Wednesday the wait dropped to four hours in many places. I felt lucky for only having to wait three hours. The good thing about Georgia is that if you get in line before 7 PM, the polls will stay open until that last person votes.
(Break)
I heard on the news earlier that the Florida Republican Governor, Charlie Crist, signed an executive order extending the polling hours and allowing people to vote on the weekend. He didn’t want people to accuse Florida of having problems like what happened in 2000. Several Georgia officials have requested that we do the same thing here, but the Republican Secretary of State, Karen Handel, simply said, “It’s against the Georgia law.”
I’m not surprised that our state will do nothing to help more people get out and vote. Georgia has had a long history of doing whatever they could to disenfranchise voters and suppress their right to vote. We won’t see our Republican Governor, Sonny Perdue, sign any executive order to help voters, because Republicans think that extending early voting will help Democrats.
I live in Cobb County and I had a polling location just down the street from where I worked, at the Cobb Galleria, so I got in the line right away. The temperature at the time was in the low 60s, but the day before, they had temperatures in the low 50s. The weather looked favorably down on me. I brought two sandwiches and ate one of them right away. Time: 5:20 PM EDT.
Shortly after getting in line, two women who worked for the sports bar Jocks and Jills came out with a cart of hot chocolate in cups. They wanted the voters to stay warm. We followed the line from one end of the long building to the other, then it came back to the middle of the build so we could go inside. Once inside, I saw that the line snaked from the doors to the other end of the long walkway, back to the doors and then back to the other end of the walkway. Time: 6:10 PM EDT.
“The massive line was way too long, and my legs might never hold
The only thought running through my mind was, ‘It’s hell getting old.
It’s hell getting old’.”
Before I got to the far end of the walkway the second time, I had eaten the second sandwich and talked with my mother. My new phone allowed me to go on line and when I did, I discovered my friend had won a contest. I also had a chance to read any new E-mails as soon as my phone received them. It took awhile, but I made it to the other end of the walkway a second time. Time: 7:00 PM EDT.
When I turned the corner from the long walkway, I discovered the line twisted and turned along the outside of the huge open area in the middle of the mall, sometimes snaking around the small shops in the middle. During this part of the wait, I listened to music and did some aerobic dancing, while standing in line. I also made some more phone calls and again read E-mails. After the long journey, I made it to the room that contained the voting machines, but I couldn’t see them from that end of the room. Time: 7:50 PM EDT.
I reached the next step, a table where I had to fill out a form that would allow the computers to find my house and provide me an electronic voting card with the appropriate choices for my part of Cobb County. As I waited for the next person with a computer to be freed up, I talked with the polling volunteer at the head of the line. She told me that they had over 11,000 people who voted at that one polling place in Cobb County in the last three days. After seeing the line I had to stand in, I believed it.
The moment of truth arrived. I placed the card in the machine and up popped the first choice, my choice for President. With the eagerness of a school girl on her first date, I touched the screen and watched in delight as the “X” appeared next to Senator Barack Obama’s name. After 22 months of listening to and watching campaign speeches, debates, political commercials, polls, pundits, commentators, right wing nuts, left wing nuts, lies, half truths, deceptions, outrageous statements, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, promises, a plunging economy and rising gas prices, I get to earn my “I am a Georgia Voter” peach. Damn, it was the hardest and most valuable voter peach I have ever earned. Time: 8:20 PM EDT.
“I finally made it to the end of this long, long voting line.
With Obama, and his VP, too. Jim Martin and his wife.
The voting star. The tax assessor and Mary Ann,
Here at the polling place.”
It isn’t over. I got to vote, but the end of this journey for the candidates is still on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, sometime late into the night. Democrats all across this country still need to get out and vote. I will be at a Georgia Democratic results-watching party someplace in Atlanta on that Tuesday night, cheering each time a state is placed in the Obama column. And, when Obama is declared the winner, the real works begins.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:12 pm
way to go, Monica. we don’t have early voting here in NY, so i’m really wondering what it’s going to be like on Tuesday.
but either way, we’ll vote. i’ll finish decorating Betty’s foot cast while we wait, I guess!
October 31st, 2008 at 10:13 pm
& Happy Halloween!
November 1st, 2008 at 2:16 am
Out in Colorado where I live, there is a wonderful way to vote, and that is to vote by mail. There are no special requitements to be able to do that. All one has to do is to request a mail ballot, and one can even get on a list to have ballots sent for every election. This year I was able to vote sitting at a kitchen table while in North Carolina, and even then it took almost half an hour to vote because of all the referenda on the ballots. Watch for news from Colorado about the extremely long lines and wait times come Election Day. The word is getting out there about the ease of voting by mail, but many people insist on going to the polls. People with health issues and the elderly will in many cases be disenfranchised by the long waits. Others will simply be put off by the long waits. This will be a problem in other states as well, not because of the long ballots, but because of a shortage of polling places. I really think wait times for voting is a national disgrace, and needs to be a part of a general overhaul of the complete election process. Elections cost too much and are carried on way too long. I also support the idea to do away with the electoral college and the person who gets the most votes wins the election. That way one state can’t determine the winner with unethical and criminal election practices. I would also suggest the polling takes at the same fifteen or twenty hours with polling places across the country opening simultaneously. That could mean open for 24 hours, but this process is too important to be at the mercy of television.
November 1st, 2008 at 6:36 am
Great post Monica! I’m in Cobb County Georgia too; but my experience was MUCH better than yours. Like Shari, I put in my request for an absentee ballot and within a week I had my ballot in my hand to fill out at my leisure. I had to make sure to get it mailed back so they receive it prior to election day. Georgia, like Colorado, allows you to do early voting this way. It’s not advertised much though. After reading your experience I’m especially glad that I voted this way. In 2004 I had to wait an hour and a half and everyone knows the lines are going to be worse this time around. On another note - Christopher wants to know if there was a video made of you aerobicizing in line with that fancy phone of yours!
November 1st, 2008 at 7:44 am
Today, November 1, 2008, I hereby announce my candidacy for President of the United States. I herewith have the honor to CONCEED to Barack Obama. I am proud to say that throughout my campaign no tax dollars have been spent and not one single donation has been accepted. My Platform… shoes, memorializing Joan Blondell, have been donated to my Presidential Library.
In NYC, where I vote in the ‘urban burbs’ there is usually No Waiting at all. This coming tuesday, I hope to have the thrill of actually having to wait to vote., surrounded by a sea of Democrats. Sometime Tuesday night, I hope to hear a chorus at first barely audible and rising to a thunderous rendition: free at last, free at last, Thank God Almighty, free at last…….
November 1st, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Kentucky doesn’t allow early voting, except in case of “family emergency or out of state travel”, but even that has been way up over past history. I exploded my right knee and had surgery on it on Halloween; doctors orders are to stay off it and not work or drive. However, I’m not worried. I live in a very Republican precinct, vote at a small church with no stairs about 2 blocks from home. There’s never a wait there during the midday hours, and I can drive the riding mower there just like Adam Sandler in “The Waterboy.” I will get to the polls on Election Day to cast my vote for Barack Obama, as well as for the many fine candidates we have running for local and judicial offices, and that’s that. I’ve never missed an election since 1976, and damn sure won’t miss this one.
I will also point out the importance of local and state races. Never overlook the extreme importance of electing good judges, school board, city councilmen, and state legislature members.
Inside tip for one and all: watch Kentucky for an early sign of how this election night will go. The polls close in Kentucky at 6PM. The state is split by the Eastern/Central time zone, but the large majority of state voters are in the Eastern. Kentucky is often the first state to be declared on election night. McCain is favored here, but that lead has shrunk to about 6 points. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader (and a truly evil SOB) is in a dead heat with Bruce Lunsford. Watch those two races for an early sign. If Obama and Lunsford win here, it will be a Democratic landslide nationally.
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:27 pm
In Australia, voting happens on a Saturday. And it’s compulsory, you get fined if you don’t appear at a polling booth. You can write “None of the above” or whatever, you don’t have to cast a valid vote, but you do have to turn up.
One of the requirements most difficult to implement on the e-Voting machines was allow voters to “vote informal”, and cast a deliberately spoilt ballot.
The e-voting machines are open a month early in most places, and anyone can request a postal vote as soon as the electoral rolls are closed.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
i can’t help thinking it’s awesome that there has been such long lines all over… people taking a greater interest in public issues is always a good thing