My polling place was at Dulaney High. I was actually surprised by how many people were already there - the side parking lot was about 2/3rds full and there were people walking in and out of the building. Last election the place was just DEAD.

There were two people standing on the curb handing out fliers - one was a young guy in a “Doors” t-shirt, the other was an older man in a green jacket. Don’t know who the younger guy was pitching for, but the old guy gave me a Dutch Rupersberger flier.

I walked into Dulaney. Now, I’ve never GONE to Dulaney High, so I don’t know if this is the lobby or what. It almost looks like the entry to the cafeteria or maybe an auditorium. Well, whatever. Went over to the table that said “A-C” and I pulled out my driver’s license. When it was my turn, I handed my license over to the woman who looked quite surprised that I had it ready.

She flipped though a box of forms and produced one. “Is the information correct?” she asked me. Well, my address was wrong, so she crossed it out and wrote in the new one. I actually moved closer to Dulaney then I had lived during ‘02 when our state elected Bob Ehrlich. Two more years, and we’ll get a chance to correct that mistake.

Once I’d signed the form, I moved to the guy seated at her right. He marked something off on his page, and noticed my party affiliation, which was listed as “GRN.” “What does that mean?” he asked, and I told him: Green Party. He said ‘oh, okay’ and handed me a plastic keycard and gave me instructions on how to use the voting machine. “Insert until you hear a click, and then follow the instructions.”

There was an open voting machine so I was able to get to it quickly. I was a little nervous, and read the instruction page twice. I made my votes, and another screen opened, showing who I had voted for.

Yay! I mastered electronic voting!

Who did I vote for?

Kerry. Mikulski. Ruppersberger.

Did YOU vote?

Well why the fuck not?

A Bush voter has second thoughts:

I think that Bush’s fundamental problem is that he tries to emulate Churchill, whose screw-them-before-they-screw-us attitude was perfect and necessary for WWII Britain. But Churchill fully understood the threat Britain and the world were facing. He had been following it for years. He was a world historian of the first order. He understood all of the historical and geopolitical context from square one. Bush started at square seven, and has never bothered to fill in the gaps. It’s not even that he put the cart before the horse…he just got on the horse and rode.

Well, never accuse the man of not being impatient enough for ya’.

Remember: vote early, vote often.