I want YOU to VOTE!

Every election my son rolls, walks, or scooters with me to the polling place down the street and helps me cast my ballot. (Related: blog post about the post election party four years ago where kids weren’t allowed.)

This year, because he has science club and I am teaching today, he wanted to get up at 6am and go with me to the polls at 7am.

We assured him that we didn’t have to set the alarm for 6am and if we got dressed quickly at 7am, we could ride bikes up there at 7:15 then get back in plenty of time for breakfast and 8am school.

When I got up at 6:45am, he was already dressed and ready to go! While I had some tea and he had a bowl of cereal, we went over and marked the sample ballot in preparation for voting.

The morning was brilliant: warm, clear, perfect for a bike ride down the street to our polling place–the same one, as far as I can remember, that I’ve voted at since I moved to my house in 1997.

A bunch of people were standing around outside–locked out! Around 720, we got in and they set up, then three of the ten of us waiting didn’t have ballots there! Not to assume, but I’d bet the big black guy was voting the same as us…

I had my provisional registration filled out when I realized my sample ballot listed a different polling place so we went there and got our “real” ballots. On the way, we ran into other neighbors who also weren’t polling on our street as usual.

At our new polling place on Santa Clara, they had no power and also got started late. A Democrat woman there didn’t have her ballot although others on her street were voting there.  To save time figuring out where she should be voting, she used a provisional ballot.

What should have taken 10 minutes took 45–and my son was almost late for school. I have never seen so much chaos at a polling place, much less at two–maybe because I have always gone after dinner, not early morning.

Do you need to know where to vote? Here’s a polling place locator.

Experiencing anything strange at your polling place? Record it with your cell phone! Report it here: 1-866-Our-Vote – a national non-partisan hotline.

And remember, most importantly, exercise your right to vote!

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