Early Voting in Indiana

Hillary Clinton made her second trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana on April 26, 2008. It was a pretty good crowd. My daughter, Rita and I, arrived just in time to hear her being introduced by Tom Henry, the newly elected mayor of Fort Wayne.

Many in the crowd thought his enthusiastic introduction was an endorsement, but the next day he waffled on this and said he had not yet made up his mind. Typical Fort Wayne type. You could only understand that statement if you had lived here for more than ten years.

People are really involved in Fort Wayne this year. After all, it has been forty years since we have had any election action in the Summit City, and having two presidential candidates visit more than twice is almost more than this city of more than half a million can stand.

My daughter and I had decided to vote early. I take care of my four year old grandson. Rita is normally at work by 5:30 am each morning so since our election board was in full swing we decided to make the trip to the City-County building Saturday, May 3.

As we approached the building we noticed a long line. I told her I was not about to stand in line for an hour, and a passerby heard me. She said, "No problem, it really moves fast!" She was young, and I had a visceral instinct that she was a Hillary supporter so I trusted her. My daughter and I got in line.

A very nice middle-aged woman appeared and asked why we were there. We both stated we were there to vote. So, she pointed to a long line of tables that had forms laying on them. We were told to fill them out and then get in line. The forms were skeletal. We had to fill in our names and addresses, along with a few other incidentals.

The line did move quickly. There was another middle aged woman with her own mother ahead of us in line. The older woman had a cane and was talking quickly to her daughter about Hillary. It appeared that her daughter was agreeing with everything she said. There was a diverse crowd there. Every mix of race, age, and class were represented.

We stood in line for about ten minutes, and then our forms were reviewed and we were told to sit down and wait to be called. I was called after five minutes and was told they had a wrong address on me and I had to fill out a change of address form. The other address they had was one I had never seen before.

All of it was very strange to me. I had lived at the same address for the last 5 years. And the city never seemed to have any trouble getting mail to me. I figured that this year there might have been several mix-ups due to a multitude of new voters.

Finally, I was called again, and was able to vote. It was really a wonderful experience to have the honor to vote in this historic primary. Not only because it is the first time we have ever had the chance to vote for a woman or African-American. But, also because for the first time in over four decades, our state is truly involved and energized within the process.

At this point I have no idea what Tuesday, May 6, will bring. But, I do know that this time Indiana counts and that is a fantastic feeling. It brings a sense of patriotism to our state that makes us feel like we are all truly in this together.