This will be short because I'm running out the door to go vote. I miss the ceremony and the machinery of the New York poll booths. I want to pull the levers and hear loud thunks and clicks as I engage my entire body in my choices. This year, in California, I'll fill in lines on a piece of paper. Who knows how much more ephemeral it will be four years from now?

judith

Yes, I voted. I was one of the lucky few (lucky many as it's apparently turning out) whose voter-registration papers were lost by the DMV, and so at first I didn't think I'd be able to cast my ballot. I was surprised at how heartbroken I felt. Not only because I wanted the chance to tell Dubya to go to hell -- if only through my little punchcard -- but, well, because I felt left out.

I grew up in a voting family. My friends were all talking about it. And damn it, I wanted to be able to talk about it too.

So I went to my local polling spot. And they hooked me up with a provisional ballot. And golly, didn't I feel good as I walked out ...

It felt empowering. But hope? That's a wait-and-see ...

Allison {adlanda@hotmail.com}

What folks seem to forget is that the lesser of two evils is still a lesser evil.

As has been my custom since my first presidential election (Carter/Reagan while at Boston University), I'm up and off to the voting station as early as possible.

This year I'm voting with my wife and my year-old son. We're voting with an eye to the next generation. We're growing up.

Michael {michael@GeekTimes.com}

I say if you limit evil, you've done some good. Sometimes, that's all you can do.

g {dischordantmuse@yahoo.com}

for the first time in my life... i voted.

i'm 20... and i feel horrible that i haven't voted in the last two elections when i could have.. (ventura won because i didn't... yet, i'm not angry about that anymore... after going to his huge inaugural ball in the metrodome and then actually realizing that it is progress to have a 3rd party canidate win, even if you're not too keen on wrestling.)

so this year, i excitedly re-registered to vote... i reminded all my friends that they ought to vote... i decided that i was going to go for an idealist slant and vote for who will not win... (but i hope that someday ppl from outside the 2 main parties will actually have a chance in hell, but did ventura have a chance?)

in the basement of a lutheran church (are elections allowed to be in places of worship? somehow that bothers my sense of church and state separation) a lady looks for my name in a sea of printed-out-pages. 'how exactly do you spell your name?' she never looked at the id i remembered to bring with me.

a plastic voting booth... a double sided slip of paper... seemed too easy... seemed strange that i fed my vote into the machine and was counted #245.

it was so simple, so easy... i'm disappointed that i didn't get to stand infront of some clunky machine, in a booth with a curtain pulled behind me... it is what i envisioned voting would be like... not in the bottom of a church with biblical passages posted on all of the walls and filling in bubbles with a Bic pen.... but i finally, actually voted.

i have been proudly walking around today, with the red "I Voted" sticker attached to me. it doesn't even matter who wins, at least i got a chance to have my say.

keledy {kenk0002@tc.umn.edu}

This morning, armed with my driver's license and voter registration card, I set out with Karen to the Greater Atlanta Christian School to exercise my constitutional right to vote. Taking my ballot to the booth-in-a-box, I scanned the ballot (both sides) and quickly bubbled in my choice for President of the United States. Immediately thereafter, I gazed blankly at a list of names I could hardly recognize. I vaguely remember a name or two from television commercials but by and large, I was staring at a list of unknowns.

I finished my ballot, choosing incumbent candidates and selecting amendments and propositions, which appeared most reasonable, as if I was taking part in a standardized test. Wiping a bead of sweat from my brow, I approached the center of the room, smiled as the poll counting machine yoinked my ballot into a small opening, slapped a “I’m a Georgia Voter” sticker onto my blue-hooded sweatshirt.

Christopher Hamilton {chrish@chrish.org}

when it came time for my first presidential election, i didn't get to step into a booth and feel the curtain swish behind me. i'm registered to vote at my parents' home, and i couldn't make the five and a half hour drive home on a tuesday. so i voted absentee. i filled out most of my ballot quickly but hesitated when it came time to pick a presidential candidate. i had supported nader throughout much of the campaign, but i live in the swing state of new mexico. i'm scared of what george bush can do and i didn't want to help hand our five electoral votes to him. finally, i resolutely marked nader and mailed my ballot. i voted for idealism instead of out of fear, and it felt great.

tonight i watch the results roll in. and pray.

liz butler {lizbutlr@unm.edu}

My favorite thing about this election: I got two people to vote who have never voted. I was proud of them. And of me.

I voted absentee several days ago. I wanted to get it over with so my dad would stop asking me who I was going to vote for. He's a single issue voter. I think there is more than one issue out there. And that his issue - abortion - is one best left out of the hands of the government, anyways.

I belive what I belive. And anyone who wants to discuss what that is, and what they believe, is welcome to discuss. People like my dad, who don't want to discuss, but want to pontificate, are not.

Catherine {heitchue@umich.edu}

no, didn't vote.

why not?

the government always wins.

and one more question. why is that voters (that is, people that vote) always seem to think that nonvoters have by not voting, lost the right to complain?

the government always wins.

ryan

last night it took me a couple minutes to drive down to the county office to drop off my mail-in ballot. the traffic was a little thick as i approached. i could see people lined up out the door. a county deputy stepped up to my car window and took my ballot with a smile.

drive-in voting. damn, i love my state (oregon).

as i write this at 8:52 p.m. pacific on election night, the presidential race is still neck and neck in the nation and in this state. there has never been a tighter race in my lifetime and the technicians say that oregonians may end up deciding who wins.

voting is my profession of faith in this experiment we live in.

i believe.

christopher naze