My vote in the primaries

My suocero (father-in-law) came to pick me up for my Sunday lunch today a little earlier. He agreed to take me to the local circolo culturale (cultural center) to vote in the elezioni primarie (primaries). I was looking forward to participating in these elezioni to select a candidato (candidate) for sindaco (mayor) of Florence.

It wasn't until my suocero dropped me off that I found out that he wasn't going to vote. I had to walk in by myself and sort everything out.

When I got upstairs there was a sign for the women, "Donne," that I stood in. My suocero fortunately told me that I had to make a donazione (donation) of at least 1 Euro.

While I was standing in line, I realized that there were two schede (ballots): one for the comune (city), which is the sindaco, and one for the provincia (province). I, of course, recognized the names for the comune, but hadn't ever heard of anyone on the other list for the provincia.

I asked the woman who took my carta d'identità (ID card) to check my name on the list what I should do. "Non mi sono informata per la provincia, come posso fare? Posso non votare? (I didn't inform myself for the province, so what can I do? Can I not vote?" She responded kindly, "Puoi scegliere a caso o puoi chiedere a questi signori lì un po' di informazione come a quale partito politico appartengono. You can either pick randomly or ask those men there some information like which political party they belong to."

"OK, grazie," I said. "Non preoccuparti. Non sei l'unica. (Don't worry. You're not the only one." After the woman handed me the two schede, I walked over to the two men and asked them which party the three candidates belong to. The man responded, "Partito democratico, Socialistà e Communistà. Democratic Party, Socialist, and Communist."

"Ah facile, grazie. Easy, thanks." I walked over to the area where there were individual tables set up with a makeshift cover so people wouldn't be able to see what our votes are.

I didn't even have time to take my purse off of my shoulder. I just put an "X" in the circle for each of the candidati that I wanted. I folded the two schede and walked over to the table where the urne (ballot boxes) were and handed them to the man who dropped them inside.

I felt happy to participate in the elezioni primarie, and hope that my vote will count.

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