Alexis and I voted on Wednesday. I was looking forward to voting as I haven't in the past.
My pick for President was easy, but the other elected positions took more time. There's a ton of press coverage about the presidential election, but not for the other positions. After discussing the information Alexis had collected and doing my own online digging, I felt informed enough to vote for US Senator, US Representative, Railroad Commissioner, and County Commissioner.
We went to the polling place shortly after noon and found that there was a line. It took us about seven minutes to get into a room I considered too small. About eight or nine touch screen machines lined the far wall with only one or two occupied. There were no signs or individuals to direct you to which table you needed to go to once you reached the end of the line. The person in front of me went to a table and I was waiting for him to get what he needed to vote when someone spoke up, raised his hand, and said "Next". I gave him my voter registration card and he called out a number to the lady standing behind him. The lady placed a thick credit card shaped card into a machine, used a touch screen to scroll down a huge list, then ejected the card. I took the card and went to a voting machine behind me and voted. Afterward it wasn't clear what I needed to do. I stood there for a few seconds, by which time Alexis was done, then managed to get a lady's attention and gave her my card. I made my way out, but Alexis stopped and grabbed a "My Vote Counted" sticker. Later she had me take a picture of her with it.
Despite the somewhat disorganized voting location, I am proud that I took the time to be an informed voter. Now I'm just looking forward to November 4th so the elections will be over. The negative campaigning and shenanigans irritates me.
On a lighter note, I think the following video of a 5th grader, named Damon Weaver, covering a speech given by Joe Biden extremely awesome.
