Voting Against An AIP

Posted on December 6, 2005 in Citizenship The Orange

UPDATE: The Disgruntled Chemist also voted for Steve Young. His comments are interesting.

Jim Gilchrist isn’t a Republican. He’s a wacko, aka American Independent Party or AIP (pronounced “ape”). I found that out when I rolled down the hill to the fire station and cast my ballot for Steve Young, whose name I learned for the first time in the booth. That’s the Democratic Way: don’t let on that the party exists.

Nevertheless, I made the trek. There’s a chance that Gilchrist just might take enough votes away from Campbell that Young will become our new congressman. Now, if I had been the Democrats I would have been in this county and knocking on doors. But the night is silent except for the very faint buzz of Christmas lights.

I walked straight up to the table where they took my name, made me sign the roll, recite my address so that all could hear that I knew it by heart, and picked up the number that let me login to the voting machine. I was done in all of thirty seconds.

“Why couldn’t they have done this last month with the other election?” I asked.

“That’s the $56 million dollar question,” said a poll worker who dressed almost like a fireman.

I shook my head.

“At least this way there won’t be any surprises in the morning,” said the poll worker.

“Oh, in this election, I can think of one very big surprise,” I said as I walked out the garage door. “A big one.”