We drove past the Aventura Library polling place yesterday as we had on the first day of early voting and found the parking lot packed and the line way outside of the building and circling around. I thought about having to stand in that line that seemed not to move at all. Carol had found a picture in a catalogue that said they had a wood and foam seat that could be used in conjunction with my now discarded walker.  Sounded like a good idea so we arranged for our Maintenance Man, Clifton, to see if he had a spare piece of wood that would do.  This was to be a temporary solution.

While shopping in Costco we met friends who had just returned from the North who had stickers on their clothing saying they had just voted. They reported that they had been in that Aventura line and it was only about forty five minutes to get the job done.  We made up our minds to go back and check the situation out after packing up the perishables in an insulated bag and found a parking space. There were seats along the side of the line that snaked slowly into the polling room. Our trip to unburden ourselves of our power to elect in an orderly manner took a little more than an hour.  This seemed mostly because many of the elderly, (one came out and triumphantly announced she read through the entire list), had to be assisted by helpers into the room – walkers, canes and all. Some voters came in and came out speedily.  The new touch screens made that possible IF you were familiar with who the candidates were and IF you made up your mind before hand.

Carol and I were helped by two lists we brought in with us.  One was prepared by the Northeast Dade Coalition (a Condominium group) and the other was made available at the polling place by an Aventura group.  We recognized that the lists favored Democrats even though there was a token presence of Republicans with signs and lists of their own.  I sat down after standing became too much and found myself near some older women who had their lists and an ambulatory man who had a list of his own.  The ladies were talkative and were delighted to see my Kerry/Edwards badge. The man, like many of those we identified as Republicans, was monosyllabic, a bit surly and did not respond to my attempts to engage him in conversation.  I found that the Republican types were vastly outnumbered by the Democrat types. This is most likely a local phenomenon.

I find that it comes down to this: if you go in prepared with a list that identifies choices, you can get in and out handily.  If you go in without it and read every name on the list and do not know who they are or what they stand for, you take a lot of time.  I felt good that my responsibility as a citizen was now over and I would no longer have to listen to or look at the partisan commercials that still come at you at a furious rate. (I am wrong on this, of course.)  Good luck at the polls.