ELECTION 2008: Tales from the Polls

By Kelley Arnold, CSG Elections Center

All the reports over the past few weeks had projected record turnout and long lines, but I just couldn’t see that happening where I lived. All my previous voting experiences in my home state of Kentucky had consisted of walking in, waiting five minutes for a machine and then leaving. It didn’t matter if it was a general election in a presidential year or a mid-term primary … you just didn’t have to wait to vote.

My 2-year-old and I arrived at the precinct at 6:15 a.m. today—15 minutes after the doors to the elementary school cafeteria were opened to voters. I figured arriving early would ensure I wouldn’t have to wait too terribly long, maybe half-an-hour at the most.

So you can imagine my surprise when I pulled into the parking lot and realized that there was not a single open parking space. Cars lined all open curbs and stretched up and down the streets. People were parking several blocks away and walking. I found a place to leave my car and headed with my toddler toward the back of the building where the cafeteria was located. And that’s when I saw the line.

The line, which I later learned had started forming sometime around 5:15 a.m., stretched out the doors of the school and around the building. After my initial shock, my attention turned to the fact that this had to be one of the most diverse groups of people I had ever seen assembled in my community. Young, old, black, white, doctors, city employees, nurses, factory workers, parents, college students ... I was pretty sure every voter in the area was in that line.

By the time I got inside, an hour had passed. Lines snaked through child-sized cafeteria tables and election officials pointed people to sets of voting machines. Ten minutes later, an official at the front of the room announced no more voting could take place until an election tech could fix a problem.

Groans echoed throughout the cafeteria and I waited for the mass exodus. People just weren’t going to wait. They had jobs to get to, appointments to make and people, frankly, just wouldn’t put up with hanging around an indefinite amount of time waiting.

That’s when something remarkable happened. One by one, people began sitting down at the tiny cafeteria tables. “I’m not leaving until I vote,” announced the women who sat down next to me. I could hear another man talking on the phone, “I’m going to need to change my airline ticket … I’m stuck at the polls and I can’t leave until I vote.” I had definitely underestimated the impact this election year had on my own community. And that’s when people began to tell each other their stories.

• “I drove my grandparents here today … they have never voted in an election before.”

• “I just called my boss and told him I’m not making the staff meeting this morning.”
• “Guess I’m going to have to move the optometrist appointment to another day.”

No one talked politics. No one mentioned for whom they were voting. Some sat and studied sample ballots. Others called friends and family to tell them to get to the polls. But not a single person left.

Finally, a police-escorted tech arrived to rounds of applause and got the machines back up. Two hours after I got in line, I cast my ballot.

The moral of my story—the momentum and energy surrounding this election has stretched to every corner of this country. You don’t have to live in a presidential battleground state or major city to get to be a part of the excitement. Voters are eager to cast their ballots and whatever the political outcome of this year’s elections are, today has already proved to be historic.

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Comments

[RFA]

This is an extremely well-written article! Kelley Arnold has captured the moment and the incredible power of the people.