We voted today. Officials moved our voting spot to…well, I checked—fifty walking minutes away. We used to have a nice ritual of walking to our voting spot, in our library branch, a mere 16 minutes away…a lovely distance for a citizen-day outing.
Plus, this time we voted in a church—and not in the basement, but right there in the church part. We had to go up two steps onto the altar area to get our “credit card” to activate the voting machine (did not ask if they got up for people with wheelchairs or walkers). Also, I had to slog along a pew from the center aisle to get over to the side where the voting confessionals were lined up along the outside walls…but that edge aisle was too narrow for anyone to walk behind the voters without peeking…hence my pew stumble.
Still, I managed to keep my Stacys straight, and I had evaluated most of the down-ticket candidates at home, except, geeze, I didn’t know about all those issue/questions [they’re always terribly tricky to parse on the fly]. Seems like I almost always find a surprise on my ballot*—note to self: get better voting info….
* I remember when I began to vote that taped down on the front table was ALWAYS a [printed] copy of the ballot we soon would be handed, appropriately marked with a big red X across the entire page or otherwise made unusable. Anyway, no surprises after looking at that! Of course, on the other hand, there was no checking the internet on the fly for candidate info. Heh. …and, yes, the title and picture reference two kinds of railing. Heh-heh.
23 May 2018 at 7:28 am
Sammy's second cousin says:
Our primary is June 26. On the preceding Friday or Saturday I will visit the nearest library branch to obtain a copy of a voting guide published by the League of Women Voters.
Over the last 36 years my polling place has been moved twice. First, it was at the nearest elementary school, within walking distance. Second, it was at the second nearest elementary school, definitely not within walking distance. The latest move was to the basement of a church about halfway between the the second school and the first but still not within walking distance.
Of course, every decade I find myself in a different congressional district, so far the 4th, 6th, 7th, and 2nd. I am in the extreme southern end of the 2nd, and the boundary between it and the 3rd runs down the road to which my parking lot connects. The district extends many miles to the north well past Baltimore.
24 May 2018 at 4:21 pm
kayak woman says:
We have voted in the same place since we bought the Landfill (more years ago than I am strong enough to count). It’s a 5 minute walk to Haisley School and even though I can now (by MI law) vote absentee any time I want, I can’t think of a reason to do that unless I am going to be out of town. Note to self: get an absentee ballot for the August primary…