The Weight

Two hours.

That's how long I waited to vote today.

I was pleased to wait. I've never voted in a presidential election at an actual polling location. My first presidential election was in 1996 when I was a freshman in college, so I voted absentee from Fayetteville.

In 2000, I was still in Fayetteville. In 2004, I lived in DC and vividly remember standing in my tiny studio apartment at 16th Street and Florida Avenue, NW filling in my ballot, sealing the envelope, putting on more stamps than it needed, and walking it downstairs rather than dropping it down the mail drop. I was too afraid that it would get stuck in the mail slot and never make it to the postman.

Now it's 2008, and I actually live in my voting precinct, so I really was pleased to wait.

The crowd was nice, calm, collected, and all around in a good mood. Not to mention, it was a beautiful day, and I managed to get myself a bit of an October sunburn. It was almost like going to a football game without the coolers of beer and pints of bourbon passing around.

After taking the first hour to read a couple of Slate articles I took in anticipation of the wait, and then spending the second hour talking to my fellow voters, I finally made it inside the Sid McMath Library.

I listened to the electronic voting instructions from the poll worker and checked each time my vote was recorded on the paper ballot to the left. Now, I'm not one big for thinking voter fraud, but I wanted to be sure that how I voted actually came out on the paper trail. You know, just in case.

What a wonderful day. A truly wonderful day. I was able to vote for Barack Obama while also voting against a terrible Arkansas Initiative that would ban unmarried, co-habitating individuals from adopting or fostering children.

What the hell kind of thing is that? It would ban me from adopting my own nephews if, God forbid, something happened to both my brother and sister-in-law. It's just complete nonsense because you know, those crazy non-married gays are trying to take over the world by fostering, adopting and loving children. Jesus. Give me a break.

L.

Here's a picture of the line as I was about 10 people away from the door to the library (I had to wait another 30 minutes after I made it in the door). See that guy way in the back wearing a white shirt? That's the end of the line at 3 p.m. and it's about 20 feet further back from where I started at 1:50 p.m.