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Delmar, Delaware- The town of Delmar is split asunder by the Transpeninsular Line* *that was laid by surveyors in 1751. The southern half of the population resides in Maryland, while their yankee cousins live in Delaware. I currently live just about a mile north of the line. My side of the town boasts a population of 1,407 according to 2000 official census numbers, while the southern side comes in a bit larger as 1,859 people called it home during the same period.
This morning my son Zane and I headed to my alma mater, Delmar High School, to vote. When I arrived there were only a half a dozen people ahead of me in line, a stark contrast to voting in the 2004 election in Columbus, Ohio. The line moved swiftly and soon I was at the head of the line. The normal small town banter was broken as one of the three voting machines allocated to the polling place failed.
One of the elections officials said, “well, about 25 people were able to use it before it went down…” She then continued, “that’s the second machine that’s broken… but it’s ok we have someone on the way to fix them.”
The approximate time of this incident was 9:15am. The polls barely had enough time to get warm and they are already breaking! Of course in Maryland the sitting Republican Governor, Robert Ehrlich, went on record and asked everyone in his state to vote using an absentee ballot for fear of the electronic voting machine. Is mischief afoot already? These are strange times, indeed. This is an era when we send out Jimmy Carter and our own Bob Fitrakis as international election observers, but can’t count our own votes. Perhaps the United Nations should hire people to watch OUR elections.
This morning my son Zane and I headed to my alma mater, Delmar High School, to vote. When I arrived there were only a half a dozen people ahead of me in line, a stark contrast to voting in the 2004 election in Columbus, Ohio. The line moved swiftly and soon I was at the head of the line. The normal small town banter was broken as one of the three voting machines allocated to the polling place failed.
One of the elections officials said, “well, about 25 people were able to use it before it went down…” She then continued, “that’s the second machine that’s broken… but it’s ok we have someone on the way to fix them.”
The approximate time of this incident was 9:15am. The polls barely had enough time to get warm and they are already breaking! Of course in Maryland the sitting Republican Governor, Robert Ehrlich, went on record and asked everyone in his state to vote using an absentee ballot for fear of the electronic voting machine. Is mischief afoot already? These are strange times, indeed. This is an era when we send out Jimmy Carter and our own Bob Fitrakis as international election observers, but can’t count our own votes. Perhaps the United Nations should hire people to watch OUR elections.