pay no attention to the woman behind the curtain

I didn’t want to write about the election in my blog today. There are so many people expressing their opinions I didn’t want to toss myself in the ring with all the “my guy
is better than your guy stuff”. I’ll leave that for my facebook page.

I have to say, part of me finds the voting process intimidating. Not the choosing of the candidates, but the actual voting booth itself. In Gardiner, NY, we have the traditional voting booths with the tab things and lever controlling curtain, and I always have this feeling like I’m going to screw up somehow and chose the wrong candidate.

One of my coworker friends has never voted before, and this will be the first election in which she will. I was explaining the process to her, and telling her how once you get inside, you need pull the lever to close the curtain and then you stand there with all these rows of people’s names and their political party affiliations. It’s just you and the tabs. I told her that I usually start with the lowest offices first and then work my way up to the President, the grand finale. I like to add some drama to my voting experience, as the presidential election is just once every four years. When you’re done switching all of the tabs either left or right, you slide the big lever back to its original position which opens the curtain, and submits your votes.

As I reread this, I make it seem like a pretty simple thing and hard to screw up right? But the last time I voted I had the toughest time getting the lever to open the curtain. I even think I moved the booth over a few inches. I think that might be the reason why I feel so nervous today, because I have a proven track record of being a spaz. It’s such a historic election, with our first African American President or our first Female Vice President being elected, I don’t want to have memories of doing something stupid like tripping into the booth or accidentally canceling out my vote.