Student declares voting worth wait

Tuesday was my first time to vote, and I thought it would take forever. I arrived at Cherokee Elementary at 11:30 a.m. and had to search a long time for a place to park. There was already a lengthy line outside of the door as I approached the voting entrance. It really dampened my spirits when I found out that the line wrapped around inside as well and made me feel like I was in Disney World all over again.

At first I stood next to an interesting older man who thought everyone should remember to vote, unless they were voting for Bush. He was very set in his ways and thought Kerry should “rule the entire world.” After a while I kind of half ignored the man, and then I got a text message on my phone.

“I’m like 6 people in front of you.” My fellow Milligan student Ben Farmer was also standing in line to vote. When the old man wasn’t paying attention to me, I snuck up and stood in line with Farmer. At least I had a fun person to talk to while I waited. People joked about camping out for a few days, and some complained that “back in the old days, it was never like this.”

After about an hour, I told Farmer we should sing songs and get the crowd going. He didn’t like the idea too much and made fun of me on my second verse of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” After being motionless for a long time - like in that R.E.M. music video - the line finally moved, and we made it inside.

My friend Kelly from ETSU waited in line for an hour, but she had to leave right before her turn because she had a class. She left in tears because she’d been looking forward to voting all day. It took a lot longer than she thought it would.

At 1:25 it was finally my turn to vote. I handed a sweet elderly woman my voter card, and she had me sign something. I then took my new fun little slip she gave me over to a man standing in front of the 3 three voting machines they had. It took about five seconds to cast my vote, and I was done. It was my first time voting, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to do so. It was good to see that people were so optimistic about voting, even if they had to wait for long periods of time. I just hope someone comes up with a more convenient method to collect our votes.