Melissa's two cents on voting

Hmm.... I also voted for Ron Paul. The short answer on why is "Because the Constitution works."

The story of our voting: We went down the street (quite close to where we live, actually) to a school where we did the classic maneuver of filing into a school's gymnasium for the voting process. There was a big sign outside saying that you can't wear any pins or political shirts while you're in the gym (so I had to put away my Ron Paul pin!).

First we had to register. (We were THRILLED to discover a while ago that New Hampshire offers same-day voter registration at the Primaries.) Given my history of not getting along with the bureaucratic process, I was pretty sure that they weren't going to let me! However, it all went well and we registered as Republicans.

The next step was going to a long table with a bunch of ladies who were divided by letters. We went to "B", of course, and were given red poker chips to signify that we got the Republican ballot.

Then we had to go over to these two ladies who were passing out the ballots--trade them your chip for your ballot.

Next we went around the corner into a warren of little voting booths which all had red white and/or blue curtains. I read the ballot and instructions about six times through before voting, just to make sure I wasn't going to do something dumb. (I later found out that Alex did the same.) :)

SO we voted and left, and I guess it was all rather uneventful, but it was the first time that I voted by actually going to a place, rather than by mail. Now I feel like the world can look at me and know I'm a registered Republican, just because I got my official red poker chip. :P