CFC Blog #239: Thoughts on Democracy As We Enter Election Week
I love hearing about times when a group of people is unexpectedly called into becoming a community. The times I’ve experienced this in my life tend to involve the group experiencing a shared situation, often unusual, sometimes emergency. And I’ve sometimes found the more important the raison d’être of the temporary grouping, the more fascinating or memorable the experience of community. Lauren’s Line, as she describes it here, makes me think perhaps everyone waiting in line seemed to feel that being in this queue meant something… the cost of the physical stamina exerted in waiting was worth the chance to realize their mind’s desires.
Also, hearing about the actions of a Line-Hero (the pizza guy) is a new Anti-Pet Peeve of mine!
-Corey
Thoughts on Democracy As We Enter Election Week
People had told me the lines in Manhattan to vote early were long, but I never expected to see a line this long. It wound around a city block two times, but the tail end stretched across two more. As I got in the line, a poll volunteer told me it could be a four hour wait.
I considered leaving and trying another time - really early one morning right when they opened. But I had a hunch this line was going to be long no matter what. Also to my surprise, no one else was getting out of line, or walking away once they heard how long the wait would be. People just kinda said, “oh gosh, okay” and accepted the future for their next few hours.
While I don’t think anyone particularly enjoyed standing for hours in the cold and dark on a Wednesday evening in October, there was also electricity, an excitement in the air. It was as if America had just become a democracy this year and people were getting to vote for the first time.
Voting in a state that will overwhelmingly turn one color - like New York - perhaps presents a conundrum. How much could my one vote possibly count - regardless of who I am voting for - when it is basically guaranteed a certain candidate will win that state? (But of course, if everyone thought this way and decided not to vote, that projected outcome may not be guaranteed.)
A rational human may have perhaps left the line - the teeny probability that their vote would “matter” may outweigh the cost of waiting in the cold for hours, at least in Manhattan.
But I didn’t see anyone leave the line for the entire four and a half hours I waited.
I didn’t see people complain or be bitter. I didn’t see people be mean when a poll worker explained how much longer or what the process was like. One poll worker was extremely generous and ordered a dozen pizzas - slices were cut in half and offered to people standing in the line waiting (I was very much starving at that point, and that little slice helped me get through to the end).
When we finally reached the entrance of the middle school gym where the polls were set up, there were smiles and cheers - poll workers, who spanned ages and ethnicities and genders, seemed jolly despite being there for hours and hours, people seemed more excited to vote than excited to just be done with waiting in line. No one knew who people were voting for, everyone was just there to vote. People seemed to let go of, just for a minute, the weight of the stakes of this election, and celebrate the absolute privilege to be able cast a vote for a future that you believe in.
In a year that has felt like I have had so little control over the circumstances of my life, what a joy it was to have this collective experience of exercising my rights and my voice - I have been hoping that the other 93 million Americans who have voted, and all of those who have yet to vote, feel a bit of this spirit as well.