Democracy in Action

The
Dowbrigade loves Election Day, even in an off-off year like the present.
The air of infinite possibility
mingled with the quiet desperation of the direct participants is intoxicating.
  In part, we simply like the fact that we are ABLE to exercise our
democratic options, but then we could have stayed at home and enjoyed
that ability without exercising it.

So there we were, fifteen minutes before the polls opened,
sipping coffee from a traveling mug and emulating the eminent Steve
Garfield by admonishing a campaign worker for standing closer than 30 feet from
the door to the polling place.

"That’s ten yards, right?" he asked.

"Yeah" we answered, "One first down."

Inside almost all of the other early voters were elderly
gents and dames.  Voting was probably the high point of their week.
We wondered how far removed we were from that category.

We checked in, no ID required, and got our ballot.  We
filled in the circles next to the names we recognized.  In the races
where we didn’t recognize anyone, we applied the same scientific principle
we utilize  on those rare occasions we visit the racetrack – a combination
of imagination and divination designed to pick winners, because we always
feel better on election night if at least a few of the candidates we
voted for win.

Speaking of which, the first election results for the
wonderful world of Watertown are going up as we write on the best site
for local politics, Lisa Williams H2Otown.  We’re off to check our
luck, and the winning tickets.