I woke up this morning to the sound of rain pattering on the tin roof of the house. Looking out the window, I could see that it was not only raining, but also windy. I waited until 9:30 AM in the hope that the weather would break, but decided to go ahead and brave the weather, anyway.
I bundled my youngest in the car and headed for the polls, stopping at the local convenience store for a couple of sausage biscuits and mocha cafe for myself and the munchkin. As we drove, I explained to the munchkin why voting was important. During our conversation, she looked at me and said, "You ARE voting for Lucy Baxley, aren't you, Mommy? If you aren't, we need to just turn around and go home."
We arrived at our polling place shortly before 10 and found that there wasn't much of a line. After presenting my registration card and my ID, I signed in and was given a paper ballot (much to my surprise, as the last time I voted, there were booths where you pulled a lever to cast your vote) and was ushered into a room with long tables which had cups containing felt-tip pens on them. Munchkin and I sat down and I took out a pen, while she perused the ballot. As I was marking my ballot, she noticed that there were several races in which the incumbent had no opposition. She watched as I wrote in the name of a candidate in opposition to Spencer Bachus, but didn't say anything. Whenb I completed filling out the ballot, she proudly carried it to the elderly gentleman who was manning the optical scanner. He showed her how to put the ballot in and she ran it through. We were each then given an "I voted" sticker.
As we were driving home, my daughter looked at me and asked why I wrote someone's name on my ballot. I explained to her that I wrote in a name because Bachus had no opposition and I could not, in good conscience skip that section, nor could I bring myself to vote for Bachus. She seemed surprised that a person could write a name in and asked why I only wrote in a name for the one race. The only explanation I could give her was that this particular race was the only one in which I knew of a person who was waging a write-in campaign, and also that some of the unopposed candidates were people that I felt would do a good job in the position.
All in all, it was a very pleasant experience. I was also very glad to see the return of the paper ballot, because I had been worried about the prospect of having to use a Diebold machine. (I mean, if it can possibly screw things up, Alabama usually has to have it.)