Today was my second experience voting in New York City. My district is in the Clinton Hill/Bed Stuy neighborhood. It's been that has been-- shall we say-- smitten with one particular candidate.
My first trip to the polls was for the primary. I got up early and the streets were barren. As I turned the corner to enter P.S. 56, a man leaning against a tree whispered, "Vote [censored]." We were well within the "no campaigning zone" but the man didn't seem to mind. I gave an uncomfortable semi-smile. "I see you're voting... you'd better be voting for [censored]." Of course, now I was turning into the building. He called after me, "I hope you are voting for [censored]!"
As I walked into the building a woman was talking on her cell phone. As she smoked her cigarette (the first illegal thing she was doing) she muttered, "Vote [censored]... " as I walked by her.
Of course, once I got inside the voting area, everything was by the book. It was so "by the book" that when I got to my polling station, my name wasn't on the roster. Apparently the DMV had struck again and hadn't processed my registration from May. Curses on you, DMV!!! A thousand curses!!! You are my nemesis, now and forever.
Fast forward to November 4, 2008. After watching a bruising campaign for both candidates, I woke up early and walked over the polling station with my voting confirmation in hand. As I turned the corner, I saw a small line leading out of the front of the building. It was 6:15 and the polls had opened only a few short minutes before. As I walked up to the building a woman walked out with her daughter. She lifted her up in the air and raised her up and down saying, "We made history! We made history!"
I looked past the happy woman and her daughter and I realized that the line went down to to the corner and turned right. It then went about half way down the block. Armed with my coffee, I went to the end of the line.
The couple in front of me were definitely long time residents of our neighborhood. "In all my years, I never saw a line this long," the wife said. "I can't believe it," says her husband. As I stood behind them for the next forty minutes as the line moves slowly but steadily forward, I heard them greet the people they knew.
"I have never been so happy to be at the end of a line," said one woman as she walked by. The line was now down to the next block.
A woman walked past me towards the end of the line, tears running down her face as she said, "I can't believe it... I just can't believe it."
When I got into the polling station, everything moved incredibly quickly. I found which line I should stand on and then only one person was ahead of me. Schools were closed for the day because all of the polling places seem to be public schools and kids couldn't eat lunches. Instead, parents all over had their children and the kids watched as they got a civics lesson from their parents.
Evening arrived after a long day of work and Kitty and I watched election results come in over the Cnn.com. (since we don't have tv). At 11 a.m., when they called the election I heard people cheering outside of the window. I put on my jacket and stood out on the stoop. A man had come outside, put his car radio on full blast and was dancing in the street. From the Shuttle train platform people were calling out, "we won! we won! HE won!" Strangers were shaking hands and hugging as they moved past each other through the doors of the train. Windows were opening up and down the street and people were leaning out cheering. As I heard the people calling out to their neighbors and cheering, news radio must have announced the winner because all of a sudden, from Fulton and Atlantic, I heard a car horn go and then another and another until a chorus rose up on either side of our small block, adding to the music and the people cheering and the lone man dancing in the street.
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