On October 19th, 2012 I went to Tally Student Center at NC State to register and vote early. Outside there were signs that said “No more campaigning beyond this point.” There were also signs and people at every corner telling you where to go. I just followed the path until I reached the unregistered voters room. I handed a man working there my student ID and my proof of residency. Then around 5:45pm the fire alarm went off. The man gave me my things and told me to come back. An elderly woman approached me and said “What is that noise? Are we supposed to leave?” And I’m thinking “Yes we are supposed to leave. Are we really that desensitized to the fire alarm these days?
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All of the early voters and volunteers along with other people at Talley assembled outside. The firefighters arrived fairly quickly and were in and out in ten minutes. I was laughing to myself because early voters got kicked out due to a fire alarm. Even democracy has to stop for a fire drill. Then we had to wait another 20 minutes so the volunteers could go get ready before we went back inside. As soon as they let the rest of us in, a few people ran inside like it was a race. I was two feet away from the elevator when the woman in the elevator shut the thing in front of my face. I even told her to wait. Did I mention it was only her and one other person in there? I really considered confronting her for being a rude noun-that –I-can’t-say-in-this-article…but I had just watched “Miss Representation” recently (and I do represent NC State) so decided against it.
I went back to the fourth floor to get registered. I had to fill out a piece of paper and sign it and then confirm that everything was correct before they handed me my ballot. Then I walked to this room filled with voting booths. I voted and then fed my ballot to a vote-counting machine. A man standing by the ballot box gave me my awesome “I voted today” sticker. I wore it next to my pink breast cancer awareness ribbon. So this concludes my voting experience for 2012. It was definitely more interesting than when I voted in 2008.