Yesterday, I voted after work. I got to the polls about 7 o’clock. There was no line. There were a few straggling voters. Outside the school that is my precinct, a young man wearing a red Obama/Biden t-shirt was handing out flyers. It was the only lobbying going on outside the polling place.
The flyer was not promoting the Obama/Biden ticket.
Rather, it was in support of Proposition 2, an amendment to the Maryland constitution that would allow slot machine gambling in the state.
The flyer — well, it was slick. It had Obama’s face on it. It talked about how slot machines meant lower taxes and more money for schools.
I was disgusted by the flyer. I couldn’t imagine that Obama had anything to do with this flyer. Or that he would have supported slot machine gambling in Maryland.
I voted in favor of everything, from amending the state constitution to allow for early voting to giving more money to the community college system. Those bond referendums, I really had no idea what they were, but I voted in favor of them.
But not for slots. I voted no on Proposition 2.
I had thought, from reading the newspapers and listening to the radio in the days running up to the election, that the slots proposition would have been close. It wasn’t. Marylanders voted resoundingly in favor of slot parlors.
I’m glad the election is over, though I wonder what will take its place in my obsessive need for news. The two year campaign was long, and at times my attention flagged.
Maybe we need reform to the primary process, just as we need reform to baseball’s postseason.
It’s over, it’s done.
And, in two years, it’s going to start all over again.
I don’t have anything profound or witty to say at just this moment. Not snap punditry from me. Not yet, anyway. 🙂