Virginia Primary

Today was the Virginia primary. I couldn't remember what party I had registered with in Virginia, and with good reason. Virginia is a no registration state, so you just show up and tell them whether you want to vote in the Republican or Democratic primary. I debated on which primary to vote in as well as what candidate to vote for all the way up to the polling station. I debated on voting for Paul out of principle on the Republican side but decided that was silly, since I would prefer Obama or Clinton to Paul anyway and the Republican nomination is pretty much wrapped up. I ended up voting for Obama.

After the fact, I learned about a website (on a friend's blog) that shows which candidate you are most in agreement with based on the major issues. Check it out: Electoral Compass. I'm even happier with my vote after visiting the site. I'm the closest in views with Edwards, but since he's out of the race, I'm next closest to Obama. Yay me, for knowing myself. The only Republican that falls into my circle is Ron Paul (only about 1/4 in my circle, but still). No surprise there. I wish people would stop saying that McCain is really a Democrat. He may be closer to the middle and not an extremist like some others, but he's not a Democrat. So it looks like I fall right around the middle in terms of the economy, but am more socially progressive (or as I would call it, more tolerant of others and their choices). I'm the pencil on the graph.

Now for the stats: Virginia is typically a Republican state, although the race seems to get tighter at each election. When you look at the number of voters though, about a million people voted in the Democratic primary but only about 450,ooo voted in the Republican primary. So that means one of two things: either the Republicans aren't showing up, or they're voting in the Democratic primary. I have at least one hard-core Republican friend that voted for Obama today. This election is going to be so interesting.

It's a good thing I voted early because the weather got pretty crummy here. The roads were covered in black ice by early afternoon (and therefore there was crazy traffic) but I figured since I had school, I'd just keep working and not worry about it. Bad idea. I left work around 5:15 and got home around 8:30. I did stop for a bit to try and wait it out, but realized the traffic kept getting worse instead of better. I completely missed school due to the traffic. Most of the major roads and freeways were closed. Yes, closed. So everything was just stopped. A lot of people didn't get to vote because of it. I'm so glad I voted in the morning.