I voted for Joe and Kamala today!

[volstork]

I live in a blue dot in the midst of our blood-red state, so my vote really doesn't count at all (thanks, Electoral College), but I happily stood in line for 2 hours to cast my vote for Biden/Harris, as well as for my uncontested Democratic Congressman and for our Democratic candidate for Lamar Alexander's seat (which will surely go to the political hack whose campaign signs "proudly" read in large letters, "Endorsed by Trump).

Since I turned 18 in 1984, I have voted in every Presidential election save one, and most all of the other state and local elections. Standing in the "booth" causes me to well up with tears, which I usually try to conceal from the sweet retirees who work the polls and help orient you to the machine. I remember going into the huge booth with the curtain with my mom as a child in the early 70s, and even then being struck by the import-- the weight--of it. That big red lever that recorded the vote did so with a definitive ka-chunk-- a sound that startled and impressed me. My parents assured that, from an early age, my siblings and I understood that this was a duty not to be shirked or ignored or thrown away; both had lived through the war and had seen what it meant to be lax about democracy.

I wish my vote counted; it doesn't in our antiquated, inequitable system.

But I still voted for Joe and Kamala today, and I was enormously proud to do so.