Lamenting My Absentee Vote

Well we made it. It's finally election day and I haven't totally lost my mind. There were more than a few moments during this campaign when I though my head might explode because of all of the coverage. 22 months is a LONG time to focus on anything, let alone something which changes every day and which seems always to be news worthy. With all the news papers and all the blogs and all the network and cable news, there has never been a moment when the coverage has let up. But it's been fun and finally, today we vote.

I hate to say it, but so far, today's been anti-climactic for me. I've been so focused for so long on so many things leading up to today that I'm surprised that today doesn't feel any different. It's election day!!! It should feel different, but so far it doesn't. Kind of like birthdays... But, I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that I voted two weeks ago by absentee ballot in Maryland. Not only is my vote not quite as important as some other people's (my roommate from Ohio's for example), but I also didn't get a chance to go stand in the lines, talk to other voters and participate in this revered process ( I also did not get a sticker).

When I visited my sister last weekend in architecture studio at UMD, she was working on a project to design a space which represents the American voter experience. When I first read her assignment (which I wish I could quote here), I laughed at it and explained that if someone asked me to do something so abstract I'd probably tear it up and refuse to do the assignment. But after seeing her project and looking at those of some of her classmates, I realized that the voting experience is really something exceptional. When else do we get together with the members of our communities to participate in something that is so much bigger than ourselves? I was struck by how many projects focused on the idea of many individuals coming together to all make one decision. I was struck too by the idea of the voter experience being one which is necessarily both public and private. Although it wasn't always the case, today, everyone's vote is secret. That moment alone in the voting booth you are given the chance to make a decision totally removed from any outside pressures. You are cut off from everything and everyone to weigh your own feelings and beliefs and make a decision all your own. At the same time, going to the polls means interacting with people from your community. You discuss the election, maybe express your views and at the very least, share in the excitement that surrounds every polling place.

People all across the country are getting to experience this--a lot for the first time, which is fantastic. It is very exciting and hopefully I get into the election day mood tonight watching all the returns with my senate race cheatsheet I made yesterday. Everyone's been saying it, but today is a historic day and I'm so glad I get to be a part of it however removed. I'm definitely going home for the inauguration (unless McCain pulls off a win somehow...) because the sense of excitement and the sense of this moment's weight in history is something I refuse to miss all together.