Charlotte, NC

5:05 PM

It was as they said. I pulled into the Harrison Untied Methodist Church in Charlotte to see a line out the door. Luckily for us it was a cloudy day. It was humid, but not too bad to be outside. I packed my backpack with water, my walkman, and my notebook. I got in line. Someone was nice enough to explain that I needed to go inside to get signed in. They had waited 50 minutes in line before they were told. It was that type of feel in line today. People were very nice and talkative. In my line was a young guy voting for the first time. There was a 5th grade teacher who was a few years younger than me and easy on the eyes. She was excited to be voting. There were two women in their 40’s also part of the group. We talked as we inched forward.

I arrived to the church at about noon. Foolish me to get there during lunch rush, but I spent the morning with Colin, Kim, and Jamie. It’s hard to leave the little kids. We moved from outside into the gym. The 50 yards lasted about 30 minutes. Once we got into the gym I felt like I was back in Disneyworld. The lines slinked and turned back and forth, like an S. I wasn’t waiting for Pirates of the Caribbean, I was headed to make my voice heard.

We moved ahead, but we didn’t discuss much about who was voting for who. It was more small talk and how the turnout is a good thing. We also said we will be glad that all of the TV ads will go away. We wondered if a winner will be decided by tonight. I still don’t know about that. The next few hours will be interesting as they say this state for Kerry and this state for Bush.

As I was in line I was a bit disappointed in myself for not being as involved in previous years. For 200 years people have been voting for president. It’s a privilege we have and we should use it. I wondered how they did it back then, without chads and touchscreen voting.

After winding around, checking different people out, and talking about others behind us, we finally made it to our goal. I got in line, scrolled through the picks, hit my buttons, and hit the big RED button that said Send. I then asked the worker to take my picture (he kind of freaked). He took it and after 2 hours, I was out. Democracy was running through my veins and it felt good. Now we wait and see…