I was the first person to vote this morning in my NJ district. However, I had to wait 45 minutes for that honor because the lone electro-mechanical machine was jammed. The polls opened at 0600, but the only reason a line formed was because we had to wait for the mechanic to arrive and repair the machine. The election higher-ups wouldn't authorize use of the emergency paper ballots unless the machine was declared DOA. Since I had already signed in, along with a handful of others, we opted to wait, and passed the time by chatting. A few people left, promising to return later in the day.
The grandmotherly poll worker observed my chatting/flirting with a mechanical engineer in line, and asked him outright if he were married, since we were getting along so well. Yes, he was. But he does have friends. Nothing like an Italian-Catholic yenta to make the morning fun ;-)
Once the machine was fixed, voting was fast because there were only 4 races and no ballot issues to deal with.
My city and county have a strong Democratic party machine, so it wasn't really surprising that I got Kerry literature left on my doorstep Saturday and Monday, and a noon phone call today encouraging me to vote for Kerry.
I did my small part for the Bush effort, participating in a local walk-the-vote effort on 10/23, and calling 15 Ohio voters (really 10 households) yesterday evening. In both cases, the Bush-Cheney campaign provided the voter information. The phone calls were more fun, because I got to talk with more people than during my walk. Most folks I reached said they would vote for the President, although there was one grouch who didn't want to hear anything more about President Bush (campaign fatigue, maybe?).
I also encouraged my Republican colleagues to vote today, to help make Kerry sweat about New Jersey and boost the overall popular vote totals for the President.
As a sanity measure, Hugh Hewitt linked to a prayer posted over at Stones Cry Out. Go pray it yourself.
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