Back from Voting

Just got back from casting my vote, not just for President Bush, but for every single Republican on the ballot. It's the principle of the thing. In times past I have voted for Democratic candidates at state and local levels, and in 1984 I actually cast a vote for Walter Mondale, to my utter shame. Call it a youthful indiscretion. But this election cycle did more to harden me against the Democrats than ever before.

I think it's important that we spend the next four years, beginning tomorrow, convincing people that the Democratic party is now the party of the fringe left. They're just Greens with a pedigree.

When John Kerry says "We will hunt down the terrorists and kill them," he's hoping that middle America believes him. His staunchest supporters on the left hope that he's lying. They're counting on the fact that the John Kerry running for President is a fake, and the John Kerry who slandered our military back in 1971 is the one behind the mask.

Anyway, it took me no time at all to vote, but then it's the middle of the day. What surprised me was that there were more "observers" at the polling place when I stopped by than there were voters. I'm used to seeing the senior citizens at the tables handing out the ballots. Today there were also a large number of non-seniors hanging around. Some were just watching, others were consulting their own clipboards and lists.

Three were positioned right by the ballot box (or whatever you call that machine that tallies our connect-the-arrow ballots) and by the look of them, I'm sure they were Kerry supporters. You know the look. Aging hippies, desperately in need of a consultation with the "What Not to Wear" crew. They stood there watching as I deposited my ballot.

I almost felt . . . intimidated.

But then I thought, intimidated by these people?

The usual suspects were positioned on the corner across from the Republican Party HQ again--two of the same type, holding up a sign that said something about the number of people killed in Iraq. They flashed me the peace sign as I drove by. I gave them a thumbs-down, as I have done nearly every day this fall.

It's strange that so many Kerry supporters are able to stand outside and hold up campaign signs on this corner nearly every single day. Where are the Bush supporters?

Then I remembered: Bush supporters usually spend the day at work.

And so I must return to work myself.

UPDATE: My wife stopped by to vote on her way home from work at about 4:45pm, and said there was no waiting at all. For all the talk about long lines at the polling places, we're not experiencing it so far.

She also said that the observers that I observed this morning weren't there when she was there.

For what it's worth, ID was not required. I don't know what I would have done if I'd stopped by to vote and they'd said "You've already voted." I think it's time that we require ID at every polling place. Geez, you need ID to write a check, why not to vote? Isn't that more important?