I showed up at my polling place at 6:25 this morning, and there were about 20 people lined up already. Only two of them were women. That seems to be reflective of other general early-morning habits that I observe — almost all the vehicles I see on the road every morning at around 6:00 a.m. are driven by males.
Once in the building (a megachurch) almost everyone split between the “A-G” and “H-P” lines. Only two folks approached the “Q-Z” table and they got to vote quickly. I guess they were making up for all those years in school when they had to wait until the end to hear their names called.
After a few minutes inside, I looked backward in the line and saw a couple from our neighborhood who are also friends, but I doubt they were voting similar to me. I wished my wife was there with me so I wouldn’t suffer the psychological trauma of my vote being not just cancelled out, but overridden.
As I left I only saw three people working on behalf of candidates. Two were for the opposing Johnston County district attorney candidates, which I suspect will be a tight race. The rest of the races in Johnston, except for school board, I think are pretty much foregone conclusions. Our House candidate (James Langdon) is unopposed and Sen. Fred Smith’s campaign has been omnipresent. The only other competitive races on our ballot were for the judges.
