Election Day

There is a lot to be said for living in a remote, rural area of Ohio. Ohio has been in the "news" lately as a "battleground state" in the Presidential Election. But my voting experience was dramatically unlike many reports. The only way in which my experience could be considered dramatic at all is in contrast to all the chaos that seems to be the order of the day in many places. Compared with all prior voting experiences there was nothing at all dramatic about it; it was just plain, humdrum voting, just like all the other years. I walked in, stood in no line, greeted the same familiar and friendly poll workers, signed my name, got my paper ballot, marked it, deposited it in the ballot box, thanked the poll workers, and left. There were no "challengers," no teams of lawyers, no international "observers," no whiney "disenfranchised." My experience today not only was similar to all past experiences in these parts, but also was not terribly unlike most people's experiences everywhere in days gone by. I contemplate how the quality of political candidates has deteriorated commensurate to the quality of the voting experience. I still have a good-old-fashioned place to vote, but hardly a good-old-fashioned man for whom to vote. How long? International "observers" already are snooping around in some parts. How long before it will take the "international community" to validate "American elections"? In that day the voting experience in rural Ohio will approximate that in Afghanistan.