Today I cast my first ever Democratic primary vote. A few things I observed:
I voted at my local polling place, Barrier-Free Living on 2nd Street. Eight years after the 2000 debacle, we had a single antiquated manual voting machine at my polling place. There was a large red lever which had to be reset for each voter which stuck occasionally; the woman who voted before me, a young woman in her teens or twenties, needed help moving it. There were two poll workers who were handling the lists of names; both were in wheelchairs and had been working since six AM. The voting machine was in a hallway; in the short time I was there, the line was well out the door both when I arrived and left. While I saw numerous volunteers and so on throughout the city today, not a single one was outside my polling place, which covered some of Alphabet City, including Loisaida and its various largely Hispanic housing projects.
Mike Gravel was not on the New York ballot. And hilariously, the only Republican candidate who had any delegates listed in my district was Ron Paul.
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…contrary to the general election, today our votes actually had statistical import.
I’m researching an op-ed on the failure of New York to spend its money wisely on election reform. For anyone interested, I’ll let you know if/when it is published.
as crazy as mine. I’m considered center/right in mine altough called the cornerstone of the Democratic party on Blumenhaur’s web page it’s filled with distrust of both parties . My state house representative once said that this district was so liberal she thought that Che would have a hard time winning.
Howard Dean yesterday said something similar to you in that this primary was the real chance for voters to count. Liked your observations. In OR we now vote by mail, I like it but miss the polling rituals, the excitement of actually going somewhere and participating with my fellow voters.