In and out in 45 minutes

Voting was actually almost a snap this morning here in New York City. I went by the Sutton Place Synagogue on 51st Street and saw a very long line with hundreds of people stretching all of the way down the block to Second Avenue and then three quarters of a block up towards 52nd Street. I decided to stay and see how quickly the line moved. In fact, it was moving quite quickly. Actually, part of the speed was due to people bailing out, usually after obsessing over their Blackberry for awhile. I got in line at 8:15 a.m. and was in the front door of the Synagogue barely 30 minutes later. Downstairs they had like two dozen voting machines and the same number of lines. It was quite crowded and reminded me of the Union Square farmer's market with half the people trying to stand in some line and the other half trying to push through and around the lines to get to someplace else. My line, for Election District (ED) 007 only had about five people in it, but was all the way in the back in the corner. I had my card, so it was easy for them to find my name. In and Out. I was walking out the door by 9:00 a.m., a grand total of 45 minutes. And I had been prepared for a two-hour wait. This was definitely smoother than even my best case scenario, especially given all the media obsessing on "voting problems."

I voted Democratic "party line" all the way and "No" on the one question on the ballot.

This morning on my walk to the synogogue and then on to get breakfast, I only saw one political button (Obama), one bumper sticker (Obama, on a delivery van stopped across the street from the synagogue), and one had-written Obama sign down the street (in the opposite direction from the line). There was one woman handing out "bookmarks" for the Assembly candidate. That was it. Nobody anywhere calling out for their candidate. Clearly New Yorkers have bigger fish to fry (like the implosion of Wall Street) than whichever of the two bozos gets to sit in W's chair. Oh, and somebody taped up a laser-printed Obama flyer at my apartment building extrance, which I pointed out to our super, who promptly mumbled something and tore it down. So much for policking in New York City. Actually, I think all of "them" are off in "battleground states", such as Pennsylvania, doing get-out-the-vote duty.

-- Jack Krupansky