In an effort to make voting day less stressful I decided to vote early on Sunday. It was a beautiful day so I decided that it was a perfect day to stand in line and do some people watching outside the Hamilton County Courthouse. I arrived at 11:30 for the 12 pm opening. The line was already 3 blocks long. I heard the people first in line got there at 9. The line wound around the outside of the building. I got to talking to the people around me; it was actually enjoyable. We also did a lot of people watching. I especially liked people's reactions when they turned by the brick fence and saw how long the line was. There were people in lawn chairs, babies in strollers, people with dogs (not sure where
they were going to put them once inside), teenagers on blankets eating pizza, people with breakfast enjoying family and friends.
I met two guys about my age in line next to me. We had the best time talking about technology. Both were big time techies. We talked about technology available and what could be available. Then we had some fun. Both had touch phones so we were doing some internet searches for statistics on the election and voting. Then we started calling ChaCha and seeing how fast we could get answers. It was hilarious. ChaCha is an online service that if you call with a question, you can get a text message response in a matter of minutes. The fastest
response was 4 minutes. We asked what year Indiana started early voting. One guy was reading about technology law, looked boring but he claimed it was not. The other guy got hungry and thirsty so called his wife to bring him some food and water. The minute he stepped out of line to meet his wife at the curb I joked that he lost his place in line and had to go to the end of the line hundreds of feet away. Nah, I let him back in.
When we finally made it inside the courthouse, I put my purse and watch, which was around the purse handle, on the security scanner. Out came the purse but not the watch. I tried to explain to the sheriff that my watch did not come out. They were nice but said they were sorry it could not be found. I explained that I would try back again but I just did not understand how it got lost. As I went in the building the lines continued to wind and wind up and down hallways. It was great to see and hear people's reactions when they would turn the corner and see the end of the line was still not in sight.
It took two and a half hours for me to vote. Worth every minute. I feel like I was a part of history. One day we will all reminisce about this historic and where we were. Oh...and I found my watch. Don't know where it ended up but was glad to find it. Thanks, Katie, for going to lunch with me when I was done. It was a great visit.
