Lines, schmines…people are participating!

The early voting lines were outrageous in a lot of places, including here in some of our Georgia counties.  Isn’t it wonderful?

No, although I lived in England for a bit, where queuing up is a national pastime, I haven’t adopted it as one of my favorite activities.  Instead, I’m simply elated that people are so charged up by this election.  They’re getting involved.  Voting is important to them.

I’ve said for years that voting in America is not only a right, but a responsibility.  We are in a representative democracy.  We elect the people who will shape our country, and if we don’t vote, how can we take any ownership or pride in it?

I stood next to a woman for three hours on Thursday while we waited to vote.  I didn’t learn her name, but at one point, she shared with us that she had taken personal time off work to vote.  Her employer had sent a company-wide email the previous day, stating that they did not pay their employees to stand in voting lines.  The polls were open until 7:00, and they could all vote after work.  Well, lines after working hours were well over 4 or 5 hours in our county (a poll worker told us that he had stayed ’til 10:30 two nights that week, and until after midnight one night), and who knows what it will be like on the fourth, so she took it upon herself to trade some of her precious personal hours to fulfill her right and responsibility as a citizen.

That is how important this election is.