Voting in a swing state, my experience

Obama in Nashua, photo from The Dartmouth

Presidential elections in CA are... kind of boring. It's a blue state. It will always be a blue state. Presidential candidates don't even visit outside of fundraisers. Every year I would go with my dad to our local polling place with our sample ballots, show my ID, get my punch card and be in and out of the booth in less than 2 minutes to get my sticker.

Presidential elections in NH are.... totally different. Obama has made multiple appearances in the past month, as NH qualifies as a swing state on some scales. I didn't get the chance to see him speak, but I've seen pictures from friends that look great!

I had to register to vote at the polls today, which was an extremely easy process. I initially went into a separate room, which also functioned as a line spillover room, and filled out a voter registration form. I presented the form and my NH ID to the official, who verified everything and gave me a slip showing that I had registered. I took the slip and got in the normal line to get our names checked off/filled in that we had come to vote, and I was written in to the back of the book. The volunteer gave me a poker chip, where I got in another line, and gave the chip to another volunteer to receive my ballot.

The ballot was like a scantron- we used pens to bubble in, which is a bit different from the ink punch I am used to. I filled out my bubbles, and got in another line to insert my ballot into the recording machine. After that, I was picked to fill out an exit poll, then I was on my merry way to Starbucks.

I had never seen so many signs outside the polling center- even an anti-choice sign showing a picture of a premature, stillborn baby masqueraded as a partial birth abortion. I hate when images like that are just laid out for people to see- there were a lot of children there who aren't even going to see torture porn movies for at least 8 more years.

In other parts of my day, I think the job interview went really well! Hopefully I will hear back Friday or next week. Right now I need to get out of bed and put the apartment in order before it tornadoes into a mess!

Current song: Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye