Home > So, what do you think? > Archives > 2008 > June > 25
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Fifteen minutes before polls close, I’m voter No. 27
As I pulled into Englewood Baptist Church’s parking lot Tuesday evening, I couldn’t believe the number of cars. All these folks had turned out to vote in the state labor commissioner runoff?
Well, no. Not exactly.
I quickly learned that the parking lot was full because it’s Vacation Bible School week at Englewood. Voting had been temporarily moved next door to Rocky Mount Fire Station No. 3.
There, the parking lot was … well, not so full.
I tried the knob on the front door, but it wouldn’t turn. I started to walk around to the back of the building when the front door opened.
“Are you here to vote?” a gentleman politely asked.
“I hope so,” I said. “The door was locked.”
He started to turn the knob to prove me wrong.
“No, it’s — oh,” he said.
No worries. I didn’t exactly have to jostle my way through the crowd.
It was 7:15 p.m. — 15 minutes before the polls were supposed to close. I was voter No. 27.
So as I sat down this morning and read Mike Hixenbaugh’s story about the cost of the runoff between John Brooks and Mary Fant Donnan, I at least could tell anyone in earshot, “Well, I did my part for that $75 ballot.”
That was the average cost of a vote in Nash County, considering the dismal 1 percent who turned out.
As I mentioned here Monday, there has to be a more efficient way of choosing a candidate when there’s no clear winner in a primary.
I still don’t know what that is. But one thing’s for sure under the present system — you can’t complain about the lines.
