February 12th 2008 - primary day here in Maryland and, forgotten in today's modern pc-obsessed world, the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. I did my homework in preparation - mainly changing my affiliation from independent so that I could participate since it's a closed primary. Left for work about 6:10 a.m. so that I could depart no later than 4 in the afternoon, more than enough time to get home and to my polling precinct.
When I went to the car it was an omen that there was ice on the door and windshield. The ground was fine but clearly the drive home might be tricky and long - what an understatement that would turn out to be. Traffic heading up Crain Highway came to a crawl just past Route 50 - and proceeded to inch up the road. An hour and fifteen minutes later I had gone about one mile, my car was beginning to overheat, and I was beginning to need a comfort stop. For the life of me I can not understand why people just don't "get it" when the weather's atrocious, nor why the police can't make more of an effort to move damaged vehicles off to the side to allow at least one lane to get by. If misery loves company then it was a love fest yesterday afternoon on northbound Rte 3.
Turned the car around and spent another 25 minutes retracing my route back to the office where I hung out until quarter to eight. After a pit stop for dinner I turned on WBAL to hear them talking about how the polls had been ordered to stay open until 9:30 p.m. rather than closing at the scheduled time. Traffic had thinned nicely and I was buoyed by the thought that I could probably easily make it back home by the new closing time, so I'd get to vote after all. As I'm making my way home, however, the calls start coming in from all over to the radio station from people who are being turned away from the polling places or not allowed in!
I get back to Towson and immediately go to the Towson Presbyterian Church where I vote. It's 9:10 p.m. as I pull in to the parking lot, and the place is dark and locked up tight as a drum. Nothing to do at that point except head home and email my protest to the election board. While I'm disappointed that I lost my opportunity to vote there are some elements here that really irritate me even more than the idiot drivers I contend with every commute:
1) I can empathize with the polling judges. It's got to be a job that you do out of civic devotion more than the cold cash you get, and the weather was pretty lousy. So after a long day I can understand not wanting to stick around. And if I had my guess it'd be that the board of elections didn't contact them to inform them of the judge's decision. Hell, I'll bet that the board really had no plan whatsoever to handle this scenario other than the OMG plan. But it was predictable that bad weather in February could occur and that extended hours might be mandated. So in this day of instant communication, what's the excuse? Furthermore, what’s the penalty for your malfeasance?
2) Even more amazing is that from what I could see on the local television this morning no one's talking about it. It clearly didn't happen just to me - there were multiple callers from around the state relating similar incidents last evening. And without exposing the problem it will certainly be repeated. Maryland, my Maryland - where the bureaucracy reigns supreme and unchallenged.
So primary day has come and gone and my voice went unheard except in the blogosphere. Guess I'll change back to independent and do an absentee ballot in the fall just to be safe.
When I went to the car it was an omen that there was ice on the door and windshield. The ground was fine but clearly the drive home might be tricky and long - what an understatement that would turn out to be. Traffic heading up Crain Highway came to a crawl just past Route 50 - and proceeded to inch up the road. An hour and fifteen minutes later I had gone about one mile, my car was beginning to overheat, and I was beginning to need a comfort stop. For the life of me I can not understand why people just don't "get it" when the weather's atrocious, nor why the police can't make more of an effort to move damaged vehicles off to the side to allow at least one lane to get by. If misery loves company then it was a love fest yesterday afternoon on northbound Rte 3.
Turned the car around and spent another 25 minutes retracing my route back to the office where I hung out until quarter to eight. After a pit stop for dinner I turned on WBAL to hear them talking about how the polls had been ordered to stay open until 9:30 p.m. rather than closing at the scheduled time. Traffic had thinned nicely and I was buoyed by the thought that I could probably easily make it back home by the new closing time, so I'd get to vote after all. As I'm making my way home, however, the calls start coming in from all over to the radio station from people who are being turned away from the polling places or not allowed in!
I get back to Towson and immediately go to the Towson Presbyterian Church where I vote. It's 9:10 p.m. as I pull in to the parking lot, and the place is dark and locked up tight as a drum. Nothing to do at that point except head home and email my protest to the election board. While I'm disappointed that I lost my opportunity to vote there are some elements here that really irritate me even more than the idiot drivers I contend with every commute:
1) I can empathize with the polling judges. It's got to be a job that you do out of civic devotion more than the cold cash you get, and the weather was pretty lousy. So after a long day I can understand not wanting to stick around. And if I had my guess it'd be that the board of elections didn't contact them to inform them of the judge's decision. Hell, I'll bet that the board really had no plan whatsoever to handle this scenario other than the OMG plan. But it was predictable that bad weather in February could occur and that extended hours might be mandated. So in this day of instant communication, what's the excuse? Furthermore, what’s the penalty for your malfeasance?
2) Even more amazing is that from what I could see on the local television this morning no one's talking about it. It clearly didn't happen just to me - there were multiple callers from around the state relating similar incidents last evening. And without exposing the problem it will certainly be repeated. Maryland, my Maryland - where the bureaucracy reigns supreme and unchallenged.
So primary day has come and gone and my voice went unheard except in the blogosphere. Guess I'll change back to independent and do an absentee ballot in the fall just to be safe.
