Early Voting

It was the second to last day of early voting. I waited, with many others for nearly two hours to cast my vote and the experience was moving.

I live on the West Side of Chicago and found the nearest location through the Chicago elections website. The Westside Learning Center is on the 4600 block of Madison Avenue. I am often the only white person in businesses that surround my house, my neighborhood is extremely segregated and mostly African American. Perhaps this is why I was so moved while waiting with the others to vote. We were given colored cards with numbers on them. A voting commissioner would call out in intervals, "Orange cards, numbers 66, 67, 68, 69....." I was red 23, I had a while to wait.

There was a sense of solemn importance among us, a sense that we were participating in a historic election and we were happy. We were hopeful, we were part of something big. We waited and waited and waited. No one complained about the wait. In fact, we were downright jovial about it. I listened as the lady across from me described her favorite dish at a Jamaican restaurant when the lady next to me started laughing and said, "she's talking about food." We all laughed and shared our common hunger.
"Let's all meet up there afterwards!" Joked one young man.

People passed the time by quietly talking, texting, just sitting. There were a few children waiting quietly with their parents. No children cried or whined or ran about misbehaving. As if they sensed the importance of it all as well.

I don't pray very often. I say my nightly thanks before falling to sleep but other than that...nope, not much. Only when I really need to reach out. Like when Kira had Cancer, when my mom was in the hospital, when I thought Tessa was going to die, when I first felt the impact of the word divorce. Important times, like this election. So I sat in my chair and said a prayer.

When my number was called the first time I didn't hear it, I was deep in thought or prayer or something. Then it was called again. I was able to enter another room where the polls were. I was led by a voting comissioner to a poll and she held my arm on the way explaining the process of the touch screen to me. I actually got chills as I entered my vote.

I left that place smiling and was greeted by a man waiting outside with his yellow card "77." He flashed it at me and said, "I'm the last one today!" I smiled and said, "make it count, my friend!"