Jewells of Thought

Woke up at 6:30 am this morning. Yet Mom still thought she had to come in and wake me up which was a bit odd. It’s been a long, long time since she’s done that. We left the house before 7 am with my uncle.

We had a car full as we of voters as ready as could be to turn in our filled ballots. It was about the normal time Mom and I usually get there only it felt different having my brother and Mom’s brother with us. There was a short line when we got there nothing abnormal except they were all in the same line.

Our precinct in Dugger covers those north of the highway and those south of the highway which is us. So there have always, as long as I have been voting, two lines: one to the north and one to the south. Then I looked at the machines another difference only 3 of them. Again there were always two on one side and two on another. There were three total for both sides of the highway.

Usually we can get in in less than 10 minutes. Today it took over 20 minutes for 4 of us to vote. Another interesting development was having judges at each booth as every person began to vote. A Republican and a Democrat had to be at the booth at least as we started. Ironically Tom McClanahan was at Dugger, and he picked up my paper meaning that he would be one of the judges as I went to the machine. However, just minutes before it was my turn a staffer finally brought a 4th machine. So instead of having the WTWO Broadcaster I had two ladies on both sides of me getting my ballot started. I was actually very thankful for that little movement in staffers.

Later on sometime around noon or maybe 12:30 Dad went up to vote. Things were a little different for him too. Not necessarily more people were there, but it still took him 40 minutes in line before he was out of there. While he was there he also got to see some friends and cousins of ours. It’s kind of fun to see who will be voting when you are I was grateful to see church friends once I left the voting machine and got a hug from them.

It’s not been as rainy today as I thought it could be. It has lightly rained and even for a bit I saw the sun shining. Although it is most certainly raining right now as I look out the window we will see how long it lasts this time. Still it’s been a good day to go out and vote even though the wind has not been good for our hair right ladies, but voting matters more than my hair right now.