A Time for Change

History has been made today. The first African American has been elected President of the United States of America. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama will take office with the hopes of bringing a new change to America. I think it will be a long road ahead of us, but with “the audacity of hope” I believe Barack Obama will be able to lead us towards the change we all so desperately want and need.

I cast my vote yesterday in Plympton. Another wonderful thing about Plympton is that they still use a paper ballot and a pencil to mark your choices. The next election may end up being a time for change for me. Since I no longer live in Plympton I will need to change my voting registration. But, I really like the simplicity of voting in a very small town.

The photo I really wanted to take was of the ballot box. It’s a wooden box that’s at least 100 years old. After casting your vote you take your paper ballot to the box and lay it on top. Then the person at the box turns a crank that feeds your ballot into the box. When it’s finished being feed a bell is rung and the tally number on the outside of the ballot box turns over. I was too nervous to ask them if I could take a picture. I wasn’t sure if you were allowed to take photos inside the voting area- it seemed like very serious business inside. With the above image I was behind a little curtain so nobody was aware that I was doing more than just casting my vote.