jennings rampage

I voted.

The deed is done. Austin and I went to the early voting center in Bynum this morning, waited about an hour and a half through some very heavy gnats, and cast our ballots. (Well, Austin cast his ballot provisionally, since they couldn’t find his registration in the system.)

Highlights!

• The voting center was the North Chatham Community Center in Bynum, which appeared to be the gnats’ breeding ground. Seriously. Ridiculous.
• Early in the ordeal, a little girl discovered that standing under a tree was a good defense against the bugs. She found a felled cedar sapling and gave it to her father, but when dad decided to try his luck at the voting center in Pittsboro, I managed to inherit the small tree. It became a topic of speculation throughout the line — people agreed I was protesting something, but they had no idea what. I think we were all relieved to learn it was just a natural bug repellant.
• Austin became jealous of my tree and held up a rock. Just to confuse people.
• There was a nice “we’re all in this together” kind of attitude, since we were all trying to get our ballots in before the statewide early voting deadline of 1pm today and they couldn’t process more than one voter at a time (dialup connection!) and voting, you know, is IMPORTANT. But there was one guy who was impatiently waiting for his wife to vote (you see, he was smart and voted the first chance he got, he liked to remind the whole line), and the wife wouldn’t stop bitching either. I assume they were Bush voters.
• Austin and I wrote myself in for Soil and Water Commissioner. I have two votes! I could win!
• I’ve saved my “I Voted” sticker — it’s good for an hour’s pay at my company!
• I voted pretty much straight-ticket Democratic, since it’s the mood I find myself in today. I cast my Libertarian “protest” vote in the governor’s race, since Easley’s probably pretty safe. And I think there was a Libertarian running for East Bumblefuck District Commissioner in charge of Radishes, or something, so he got my vote. In the non-partisan races, I voted for men. I’m a chauvinist, that was all the information I had available, I had to act on it.
• If you’ve pledged to have sex with a voter, here I am.