random thoughts – Day 1,330 – (Tuesday) – number one

I’ve known for weeks, months even, that today was election day. Today the city website was finally consulted for guidance and to kill time before going. The sample ballot for District 4 Precinct 4 was located and showed a few city roles and no ballot questions, which was a relief. The questions are usually killer. So wordy. So confusing. I was thrilled there were none this time.

While sipping coffee and watching the clock, I debated the whole going out to vote thing. The ballot was so minimal that I seriously considered skipping it. In the plus column was the satisfaction of fulfilling my civic duty. The minus column was dominated by laziness. 

I tooled around on the city website for close to a half-hour after the polling sites opened before finally guilting myself into going to vote and mobilizing to do so. If local people can care enough to run for local office I need to care enough to go vote, even if it's "just" a few city council school committee seats. Jacket – check. Keys – check. Wallet with license – check. Waze app set with directions – check.

According to the navigation program, it was a seven-minute ride from the house. Cross over this road, turn here, turn there, and suddenly, allegedly there. Except I was in a residential neighborhood on Homestead Road and Waze was informing me I had reached my destination. This was definitely not the elementary school on Enell Street, but that is what I get for entering the destination name instead of looking for the street address. But I noticed a cute little cape house for sale on the street and made a note to look it up.

This was the first time since abandoning Garmin, the clunky predecessor navigation system, that I ended up in the wrong place using navigation. Very unlike Waze, and being misdirected was definitely not an activity I wanted to deal with before the usual caffeine allotment, which was at home in the coffee pot on the warmer.

While driving through the neighborhood looking for the correct location, there was a challenge. There was no parking available on the street in front of the entrance to the polling site. I looped through the parking lot where all the marked spaces and several improvised places were occupied. While exiting the parking lot, I turned a corner and after a second or two, wondered why the parked cars were all facing the wrong way. Ummm…. nope. It took a second to register that I was going the wrong way down a one-way street. A u-urn got me re-routed and scored a spot on the street.

The polling site is the location for two districts/precincts to vote. Four or five people ahead of me were directed to a check-in table to the right and I was sent to the table nearest the entrance where I was the only person checking in.

After marking the ballot with the provided black felt tip pen, it was fed into the machine and the clerk said, “ok, it went to 001.” When I said, “what?” she said mine was the first ballot for my precinct. That was certainly not something I expected 45 minutes after the place had opened and I’ve never been the first person to vote. I laughed and said, “yay, I’m number one!” and we both dorky laughed and I left.

Supper.

After the unexpected thrill of casting the first ballot in my district and precinct it was just another day of reading and answering mails, reviewing things, making notes on things. Broccoli, mushroom, cheese quiche for lunch. Ham and barley soup with toast for supper. Just another day. Except I was crowned the first person to vote in my precinct without even trying. Why can’t being number one at something be this easy more often?  And now I also wonder how many people voted behind me.