doing my part

Of course, I voted today. I did not vote until the afternoon because my local polling place does not open until ten in the morning. Apparently, no one of the less than two hundred residents of our precinct has complained about the late start.

I walked into the polling place, a Lutheran church in a small town which is actually outside the township where I live. There is no public building in the township where I live. As soon as I walked in, with Starflower because I had to pick her up at the school from piano lessons, the township clerk whispered my name to the woman who kept The Big Book of Voters in XXX Township. I did not know how the township clerk knew me, but I like that a lot better than "what was your name again?" So it turned out I was the last of the six or so voters whose names started with an "S" to show up. The Hermit included. I was handed my ballot, and I actually had to wait for the ballot scanning machine, but otherwise there were maybe six of us in the whole church building at the time.

Starflower was there as I filled out the ovals on my ballot. I tried to explain to her what an amazing privilege this was, and how many parties actually had a candidate for President. There were very few surprise races on the ballot; there were the usual candidates for Soil and Water Conservation District, which I voted on based on personal experience with my job. There were the numerous judge positions, which I refrained from voting for because I knew nothing about any of the candidates. It would be totally unfair for me to flip a coin and vote for someone.

So now we are waiting, with the rest of the state and the nation, to hear the results. God bless us, one and all.