Ghost in the Machine

Well kids, I did my patriotic duty as a proud bleeding-heart liberal and voted early this morning. God, it felt so good to cast my ballot for John Kerry and John Edwards, as well as Chuck Schumer and Carolyn Maloney – all along the Working Families Party line. As Paul Krugman points out in today’s New York Times, no matter what the outcome of the election and all the dirty tricks and voter suppression shenanigans that are likely to take place, this simple act of voting is a confirmation of our faith in democracy, in America.

And, just for moment, all the spin and lies and sniping of the last year becomes white noise…what really matters is what millions of us are doing in the sweet refuge of voting booths across the country…

Everyone at work I’ve talked to spoke of feeling choked up or electrified (someone mentioned they felt almost spiritually “renewed”) as they walked into the public school gym or community center and waited in long, snaking lines to cast their ballot on one of those wonderful old voting machines they have here in New York City (they’re still the same type that my Mom used when she would take me along to vote in my elementary school gym in Yonkers back in the ‘70s). The “click” the machine makes when you pull down the small levers and the “X” that appears in the window next to your candidate, and the “THWAAK”(thanks, Kimdog for the right sound effect) the large lever makes as I pull it and all these hidden gears turn and record my vote, are so integral to my voting experience that I hope they never replace them with the cold, silent digital ones and zeros of touch screen voting.

Let’s just hope that the voter turnout is greater than all of our wildest expectations – and that John Kerry is the clear, unambiguous winner of this election.