Adventures in Voting

Yesterday was a rare, low-humidity day in June - - shocking! I took this as a sign. After several days of false starts I managed to get myself into the car and head over to St. John Baptist Church for early voting. I don’t know if you remember, but there was a bit of an uproar when St. John Baptist built their new church on the corner of Tamar and 175. Some people seemed to suggest that James Rouse had forbidden church buildings as a part of the Columbia Plan.

Since then I’ve observed so many ways that this congregation has connected with the community and opened its doors to educate and to serve. I wonder if the naysayers have noticed?

A few things.

Something yellow caught my eye in the parking lot. What office is the duck running for? I’m serious. That’s a duck.

Apparently it’s associated with Linfeng Chen, whose enormous sign you can see in the center of the photo. I don’t know if there are any electioneering rules which expressly forbid duck signs. But what would happen if every candidate jumped on this technique and the parking lot were awash with additional horses, pigs, roosters, goats, etc? Possibly a great enticement to bring your kids to vote?

That would be interesting.

For that matter, here’s an eye-catching RV serving as an impressive sign board for Jean Xu.

Notice how it is strategically placed directly adjacent to the St. John Baptist sign at the parking lot entrance.

What happens then if every candidate decides to do the same? What would that look like? Would there be any place left for voters to park?

Would it look like a used car lot?

Voting itself was not all that busy during the time I was there. Probably the best part was bumping into a dear friend who was working the polls. It was nice to feel personally welcomed by someone who really knew me. 

Of course, I always enjoy getting to thank the volunteers as I move through the voting process, a little ritual I missed when I needed to vote by mail. I wonder how many people thank them. A lot, I hope. 

I had a choice as to how I wanted to enter my vote and I chose the touch screen version. I don’t think I’ve ever used this particular kind of machine before. The poll worker explained it thoroughly, answered my questions, and I was able to move through the ballot without any trouble.

It all went smoothly and I would have rated myself an A-plus had I not committed a stupid white person faux pas on my way out. I am sharing it here because it was a good reminder to me that this stuff pops up more often than you might think.

The very last person I saw before I left thanked me for voting. I thanked her for working the polls. And then I added, brightly, “You know, this is the first time I’ve been in your building. It’s beautiful!” 

She smiled. I went out the door, got in my car, and then it hit me. There’s no way I could know if it was her church. But my stupid little brain said, “Oh, she’s Black, and St. John Baptist is a Black church, so this must be her church.”

Ugh. Those assumptions you make without really thinking can be mortifying. To the nice lady who didn’t correct me: I’m sorry. 

If you haven’t voted already, I hope you’ve made a plan to accomplish that soon. And, if you see anything interesting while on your voting adventure, let me know. 

Village Green/Town² Comments