Sent: 11/7/2002 2:29 PM
She had a walker
I voted just up the block in the elementary school directly across the street from the nursing home. When I walked into the school's cafeteria, I was amazed by all the tables, numbers, and people with walkers, oh my. There was very slow movement around the sign-in tables of each district. I had to chuckle. I thought it was going to be better for me to vote during the day rather than around closing time. I hadn't factored in the nursing home residents. A very small lady with deep glasses and white hair was wandering aimlessly about the tall army green voting booth machines looking back and forth from her voter registration card to the numbers taped onto the elderly machines. It did seem confusing, and I quickly pondered my senility.
A nice suited guy with a florescent green sticker seemed to scream, I'm information, ask me, so I did, and he pointed me in the right direction of where my district's voting booths were. I was amazed at how many districts were set up to vote in this one place. I walked to the table and stood in line to sign in. Beyond the booth, a woman being assisted by her nurse threw her walker the full arms length in front of her and quickly slid in behind it trying to get out of the way of the next voter. She cringed as she attempted to scuttle past another woman's rear almost blocking her escape path. Finally, the nurse helped her around, and the next voter walked into the booth. This was going to be a long but entertaining process.
When I did get to vote, I couldn't get over the city's voting booths. These seeming 50's x-ray machines were priceless. There certainly was a kind of childlike curiosity in stepping inside the black curtains, while the woman assisting cranks a lever turning on a little white light bulb on the top just above the green one. And it was kind of fun to pull the big red lever like a gear shift with a clang and clank and then start flipping manual switches, making my selections. And I did get a good laugh from the old woman who came into my booth with the woman assisting in order to help me figure all this out to begin with. AND, honestly, there was even some glee when I pulled the big red lever back over to complete my vote with a big thadud. But then really, with the technology we have today!!!
All in all, I left the elementary school feeling really good about voting. I had no idea how it was going to turn out, but I had made my choices along with the others flowing in and out of the school. I just remember, no matter who gets the job, we the people are still the boss. For real democracy doesn't begin and end in a voting booth.
