It's Over!!!!!

If you look at a political map of Pennsylvania, I lived in that little blue area out west surrounded by all the red. I guess that’s as it should be since Pittsburgh (which is the entirety of Allegheny county) is a blue-collared Union city. Here, even the Republicans run as Democrats.

I have voted in many different states. I have seen lots of different things at the polls. In New Hampshire, you can easily run into one of your dozen local reps at your polling place – shaking hands, wearing different political buttons, gossiping. In Texas, I once had to e-mail the Secretary of State’s office to file a complaint when my polling station didn’t open on time because they were having trouble with their machines. (Legally they have to open on time and do paper ballots until the machines are working again.) There must be a law in Pennsylvania about campaigning outside of polling stations because you never seen anyone, only signs. But voting yesterday was certainly my most exciting adventure at the polls yet.

The polls are less than a mile away, so Emry and I jogged over. When I arrived, I thought a couple of police officers from the station across the way were simply coming over to vote. Guess not. They were actually coming over to possibly remove a purple-haired lady from the premises. Said purple-haired lady (and I don’t mean that like “little old blue-haired lady”, I mean – literally – bright purple mixed in with dark black) was causing a bit of a ruckus, declaring “we/they/whoever” were suppressing her right to vote. Since one of the voting officials was having to attend to her (she was presently on the phone talking to the secretary of state’s office insisting that she was registered even though she apparently had no card to prove it), the line moved a bit slow. For the next ten minutes, I was thankful Emry isn’t quite old enough to stare at purple-haired ladies who shout one minute about their rights, speak perfectly rationally the next as if trying to understand the situation and then burst out into teary sobs right after that. Truly, it was quite a scene. Just not enough for the cops to drag her off – for she wasn’t truly harming anyone, simply embarrassing herself. That was around 10:30. When Ed dropped by the polls an hour later, she was still there… Maybe there’s something to our Founding Fathers restricting voting privileges to people of  “a sound mind”.

Aside from that, it was not a thrilling day of voting. Even some of the Democrats I work with stared at their ballots wondering if they should vote for the person they really don’t like over the person they really, really don’t like. Of all the offices on the Pennsylvania ballot for our district, only one did I vote for with a happy, clear conscious. The rest I may as well have closed my eyes and eenie-meenie-miny-moed.

But, Ed was right. Just to have voted and have it over with was a relief. And we certainly weren’t the only ones who felt that way. Even though I know some of my workmates voted for Hillary, even they were more relieved today than upset. For, it’s over. It’s decided. It’s done. And regardless of the outcome, God remains on His sovereign throne. In the end, what more do we need?