Get Out the Vote

I exercised my right to vote this morning, much to the chagrin of my youngest child.

Dan told Seven that we were going to vote today and Seven immediately started whining that he didn't want to go vote. We were shocked, since their grandmother has been brainwashing both children about this election since about August (when we moved in with her). We thought Seven would be delighted about casting our ballot for us, so we asked him why he didn't want to vote with us.

He said, "Well, I think that it will take a really long time to vote." Dan explained that, yes, we might have to stand in line for a while, but it was worth it to chose our leader because in some countries the people can't pick who their leader is.

Then Seven said, "But I think it will take a really long time to get to Washington where we have to go to vote."

Being the sensitive mommy that I am, I cracked up laughing at him. Dan politely explained that we don't have to go all the way to Washington D.C. to cast our ballots, but could vote right here in our own town. (While I continued laughing and saying, "That's going in the blog.")

I waited in line for an hour in front of a woman who had no concept of personal space. Or using her indoor voice. Or keeping her political views to herself. She loudly extolled the virtues of her candidate (while bad-mouthing his opponent) to the poor people trapped back there with her. Thank God I'd brought a book so I could ignore her in peace. Well, relative peace. She kept poking me in the back with her purse. And she was that loud. I was voting for the same candidate she was, but I was so sick of her whiny-butt voice that, by the time I got up to the big red button, I was tempted to vote for the other guy just to spite her.

But I didn't. :-)