Well, the reading list was pretty esoteric at Ashborough West in the Oakbrook community outside Summerville. Normally a staid, relatively in-and-out voting precinct, Old Fort Baptist Church had a line of waiting voters stretched down the hallway corridor halfway around its sanctuary and circling back again to the door. The line lasted throughout the morning and began to ebb, weirdly enough, at lunch time.
People know each other in the adjacent neighborhoods that make up the precinct and the word got out pretty quickly the wait was more than an hour. So they showed up with an assortment of paperbacks and hardcovers - a Patricia Cornwell suspense novel, The Diplomats, Puppy Chow is Better than Prozac and, ironically enough, 23 Minutes in Hell.
Cell phones and ipods came out. People joked with their friends about how only a chance to vote for the Sunday alcohol sales referendum could get them in a line like this.
Nobody seemed to mind the dealy. The number of younger people in line to vote was striking compared to other elections. Michael Coutu stood still and said nothing, his eyes taking everything in and his fingers nervously snapping his driver's license and a voter registration card still attached to the paper it came on. He had never been to a poll before. He turned 18 in March. After he voted he turned and quietly walked out.
"My first time and the wait is an hour and a half," he said smiling wryly. "But it was definitely worth it. I know my voice is heard. I know what I did is for my country."
-- Bo
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