A majority of The FADER staff voted all over New York City today. A few of us had already voted absentee, another few will vote in Los Angeles later, and one of us journeyed all the way up to Connecticut last night to be ready for the polls to open this morning. Some of us had an easier time than others, but in one particular case, the turnout made it feel like we were truly earning our vote.
Read about it after the jump, and we'll see you tomorrow, when we will either be talking all about our plans to move to Thailand or happily nursing the gnarliest champagne hangover a Wednesday has ever seen.
At one of our polling places, representing a small section of Flatbush, Brooklyn, the line extended nearly four city blocks at 8:30 in the morning. With roughly fifteen voters every ten feet (yes, we counted and measured), an estimated 1500 voters stood in front of us when we got there and another 1500 stood behind us when we pulled the lever.
We've stood in and stared at many lines in our lives but never one this long and never one this patient.
Any other day of the week in this neighborhood, people will honk at you to go when they see the light in the other direction turning yellow. They will shoulder and steal seats from old ladies on the subway in the morning. They will eat tomorrow if it means not having to wait behind you at the grocery store today. Cats push other cats out of the garbage on these streets. But this morning, people were more than happy to stand in line for nearly three-and-a-half hours, telling their kids why some people might want to vote for John McCain, calling their mothers to describe the line itself, laughing at the young dudes riding by on bikes yelling "Obama!" saying they need to go pick up a book. Even when early voters began telling mid-liners they could move up to the front if they had their district cards, nearly everyone stayed put, willing to put in another hour of line time for a guaranteed spot rather than risk losing their place.
Not to get all sappy—because who knows if New York City or anywhere else is even prepared to count all these votes—but this morning, and the rest of the day if the pattern holds, was what we'd all hoped it would be.
And in an unexpected update to our post yesterday, Obama's grandmother got her vote counted after all.
And on that note…