I Voted, Did You?

I'm very proud to announce that I did my civic duty yesterday and voted for whom I hope will be the next president of the USA. Took an early lunch hour, and went to the government center to vote. It took about 1.5 hours to stand in line. Luckily, there's a cool snap in Miami, and it was a balmy high 70's low 80's. Nice breeze, no humidity, and not a cloud in the sky. A beautiful day to vote.

Its interesting that the news reported last night that turnout in fla is slightly lower than 2004. Um, not in dade county its not. There were never lines in 2004 like there are this year. The average wait to vote is running 2 - 3 hours. 1.5 hour wait is quick. When dot voted on sunday, a famous actress was there, chit chatting with voters in line and encouraging people to stay in line and not get frustrated with the wait. I understand lots of celebrities are being dispatched to perform similar tasks in different cities and states. Governor Crist announced today that we'll lengthen our voting day from 8 hours to 12, to help accomodate the crowds (much to the Joker's dismay). That tells me that the turnout is going to be huge here.

Anyway, no matter who wins (although I'm admittedly HUGELY biased toward my candidate) its nice to see so many people exercising their right to vote. A woman in her late 20's behind me was with her grandmother. From their conversation which I was obviously easvesdropping on to pass the time, this was the granddaughter's first time ever voting. They'd come together to cast their vote and both were very excited. I thought that was nice.