Every now and then, I’m reminded of just how historic an election it is this year.  I am not black, nor do I ever pretend to remotely know or understand what they have been through.  This story, however, brought a tear to my eye.  I voted for Obama yesterday, yet I didn’t have any kind of experience like this, and I probably never will.

I squeaked in just before the 7pm deadline to find two very frustrated poll workers and a line of a couple dozen people, due to problems with the computerized voting system not accepting people’s driver’s licenses. It was taking about 7-10 minutes per person just to get the computer to accept them as valid and to print out their ballot, causing very long delays.

For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn’t in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president. Anyone who doesn’t think that African-American turnout will absolutely SHATTER every existing record is in for a very rude surprise.

There were about 20 people in front of me but remarkably not a single person left the room without voting over the 2 hours it took to get through the line.

There are still people in this country who want to steal this election.  There’s still a lot of racist bastards and ignorant people out there too, but this folks, this is what makes you proud to be an American.