Rise and vote

By Maureen Raitz, Editor

Dover Post

Wed Nov 05, 2008, 09:18 AM EST

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Dover, Del. -

I would never classify myself as a morning person. Before Tuesday, I can’t remember the last time I was awake and out of the house before the sun came up.

But with the looming threat of unbelievably long lines at the voting booths, my husband and I headed out to our polling place at the Marydel Fire Hall, leaving the house at 6 a.m. I figured it would be a perfect place for photo ops for this week’s issue. The Dover Post always has the misfortunue of printing Tuesday afternoon and coming out a day after the election without the results.

Only poll workers were there when we arrived. Given the rural and sparsely populated area in which I live, I really wasn’t sure what to expect.

By 6:30 a.m., a few voters arrived and we hopped in line, standing third and fourth with half an hour to go before the polls even opened. By 6:50 a.m., the line extended from the door to almost the end of the building. That’s more of what I thought I’d see, given the hotly contested races, both nationally and locally.

I walked out of the polls at 7:05 a.m. and headed to work, plenty of time to grab a much-needed cup of coffee and get the office on time. I guess dragging myself out of bed worked out in my favor.

That wasn’t the case everywhere, though. News Editor Jeff Brown stopped by W.B. Simpson Elementary in Camden at 6:45 a.m. and already approximately 230 people were waiting in line.

Staff writers Jayne Gest and Sarika Jagtiani cast their votes first thing Tuesday morning at the Wesley Fellowship Hall on Loockerman Street and encountered some lines and a lack of voting booths — only two booths were open at the hall located in the center of downtown Dover compared to my six in rural Marydel. But they still made it to the office by 7:45 a.m. Not bad considering the aforementioned Simpson school.

Jayne and Sarika both reported that when one of the poll workers knew she had a first-time voter there, she’d announce it to the crowd and people would clap and cheer.

Some people may not look at voting as an accomplishment or a milestone in life, but indeed it is.

Of the many conversations I had with the nice people on line with me in Marydel, one woman said she couldn’t believe how many people — adults, mind you — are voting for the first time in this election. I’d agree that this probably is the most important election of my lifetime up to this point, but that doesn’t mean the others have been trivial and not worth voting in

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