My Experiences Voting in the North Carolina Presidential Primary

How can people be undecided in a political election? I've wondered this my whole life. Usually, when the candidates declare for an election, I pretty much know for whom I'm going to vote.

But the 2008 presidential election is different. For the first time in my life, I'm not sure who is going to get my vote. It's a different feeling, as is voting in the Presidential primary, another thing I've never done before.

The first thing I had to do was find out where my polling place was. I usually vote by absentee ballot, so I don't have to wait in line or deal with too many people. Fortunately, this information was available online. I found out I was registered under my old address.

I decided it was too late to change my address now and have it come out right, so I decided to go to Charles W. McCrary school, the polling place for my old address. I pulled up at the school at 11:45 Tuesday, hoping to get there before people get out for lunch.

Hillary or Barack? Isn't it great we can identify the candidates by their first name? I like the idea of being on a first-name basis with our future President. I just learned that Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul are still on the ballot. It means Republicans are debating among John and Mike and Ron. Doesn't Hillary or Barack sound better?

There are plenty of cars in the parking lot, but there's nobody there voting. With my two-year old daughter in tow, I walk over to the desk and find the sign with letters J-N and tell them my name.

He finds my name and asks me for my address. Fortunately, it is illegal to ask for a picture ID to verify that I am who I say I am. Because my license has my current address, that would disqualify me from voting. I give him my old address and then he gives me a paper to sign.

Clinton or Obama? Do I want to make history by voting for a woman or a black man? Is it better to vote for the woman whose husband is a philanderer or the man whose pastor is a media whore?

He instructs me to take the signed document over to a woman further down the desk, who will give my my ballot. When I make the trade, I get an oversized, light cardboard ballot with all of the Democrats running for various offices. The kind lady instructs me how to properly color in the bubble next to the candidate that I support. I haven't felt this retarded since the cable guy felt the need to show me how to use the remote control when hooking up my box back in the early 90s.

I walk over with my daughter and my paper ballot over to the voting booth. I'm not sure if booth is the right word. There are slight partitions between each station, which come up to about shoulder height on me. If someone famous was voting next to me, I could easily peer over the side and look at their ballot. But no one famous lives in Asheboro and no one else is voting at this time, anyway.

The Senator from New York or the Senator from Illinois? I have no doubt that either of these two will be a huge step up from our current President. But as that's not setting the bar very high, I ask myself, "Which one will I be more proud to tell my daughter I voted for, once she's old enough to understand"?

There are many other races going on besides the Presidential race and I don't know the difference between most of the hopefuls. Honestly, I don't know the job descriptions of some of these, either. What does the Commissioner of Insurance do, anyway? If someone ran for this job with the promise that my Inbox would never again see an offer for a rate quote, he would have my vote.

I ended up voting for President, Governor and the ballot initiative, which is a partial tax increase of ¼ of one percent on non food and gas items. I took my ballot over to the machine which collected them, inserted it the proper way and my vote was cast. The machine informed me that I was the 143rd person to vote at McCrary School.

After I voted, both my daughter and I got stickers to wear. They were oval shaped, with a picture of the American Flag and the words "I voted". My daughter loved her sticker and immediately put hers on her shirt and wore it with pride.

Now I just hope that my daughter can one day be just as proud for my actual vote.