Election Day

Here in Disenfranchisement City, also known as the District of Columbia, we citizens have no representatives in Congress and even the laws passed by such elected officials as we have can be overridden by a Congress made up of Representatives and Senators elected from everywhere but here. Moreover, the District is more than 70% Democrats, so our general elections are usually pretty meaningless -- the Democrats always win. Well, not absolutely always, but almost.

So it's a rare day in the District when we actually have something to vote for. The Democratic primary election for mayor really matters. That's exciting.

And then there's today. This is the first time ever since I've been here that the presidential preference primary has been held in DC at a time when the nomination was still up for grabs.

The polls were packed! I actually had to wait in line! There were eligibility issues! People were trying to vote who weren't registered with a party, who didn't live in the District, or who had moved within the District since the last election. The election officials were courteously, if somewhat slowly, handling the problems.

It was almost like living in a place that actually had real elections. A rare taste of democracy for DC.