Election

Above from Rozi: “Many months ago you featured my alien with his “Impeach Bush” sign. Thought you might like to see the update.”

From El Puma:

More after the jump. (more…)

Holy cow this was amazing. First, I waited on line this morning for almost two hours to vote. That has never happened to me in the many elections I’ve voted in before. You knew something special was brewing. You could sense it, practically taste it. And sure enough the victory celebrations have been amazing. At midnight you could walk anywhere on U Street from 9th Street to 14th Street and the streets were flowing with folks celebrating. There was honking cars, dancing, singing, fireworks, chants, you name it. I imagine it was like a combination of a World Cup, World Series and Super Bowl victories wrapped up in one.

I ran into Bill Crandall on 14th and U Street (see video above) and he had a really interesting insight. He said, we’ve come full circle, you know almost exactly 40 years ago there was rioting where we are standing right now. It was a really interesting thought. 40 years ago was mayhem and sadness. Today there was ecstasy. And today I should add the ecstasy was experienced by quite a diverse group. This group consisted of black, white and Latino and the joy was shared by all.

Eventually I knew I had to go home and was trying to catch a cab (unsuccessfully) near the 9:30 club when I saw two young women smiling and honking in a parked car. Well, the driver sees me and honks and smiles. Then she exits her car, runs over to me and hugs me and lifts me straight in the air spinning in circles while screaming “we did it, we did it, we did it!”. I have never witnessed pure joy like this in all my life.

So tell me what were your election watching experiences like? Did anyone witness some street celebrations? If so where? Were the streets blocked?

I can honestly say I’ll remember this night for the rest of my life.

How was your voting experience? Seems like everyone I spoke with said the polls were dead quiet.

As a kid in central Pennsylvania I came to DC for Museum field trips. In the early nineties, I commuted from Baltimore City to DC for over two years for grad school. I moved to the burbs and commuted in to downtown for work, and then finally, a few years ago, I actually came to live here.

Besides getting my Taxation without Representation license plates and my zone parking sticker, the defining moment, for me, of being an actual Washingtonian was showing up to vote as one. (I’ll save Jury Duty for another post, since I think my two years are up again soon.)

My polling place in Ward 5 is a high school down the street. Thinking I might write about the experience, I brought my camera. I came expecting to meet at least some enthusiastic supporters. I found none. The grass in front of the school had a few signs for candidates, but that was the extent of the hoopla. Given that it is not a year to pick a Mayor, and the precedence of the national campaigns, I suppose it’s not that surprising. I settled for taking pics of the red Voting signs.

Despite the light drizzle, there were some poll workers taking a break outside the front door. There seemed to be an abundance of poll workers. Although it was the middle of the day, I thought maybe some people would stop by during lunch. The last time I voted, it was in the morning, but after the start of the work day, and there was a long line of lively octogenarians. Today, there was no line.  Story continues after the jump. (more…)