Polls Busy Early in Bennington, Vermont

And All with the Smell of Cookies in the Air

Bennington, Vermont -- It was busy early at the fire station here. I was surprised and pleased this week to find out the polling would open at 5 a.m. This was a new and optional possibility for Vermont towns this year. Both Bennington and North Bennington, expecting high numbers of voters, opened at five. Hopefully, this didn't cause too many folks in other towns to be confused about the opening time, which is set by each town under state guidelines.

Anyway, like I was saying, it was busy early at the fire station. I know this because I dropped off my grandson (the "cookie man") at 6 a.m. to sell his ever popular Otis Spunkmeyer cookies at the FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) food sale. It was already steady, only an hour into the opening. The parking lot was full, with cars coming and going. When I returned at 8 a.m. with my husband to vote, the parking lot was still full. All different cars, though. He let the pickup idle for a moment. Another truck backed out of a parking space, and we pulled into the spot. It was like a ballet of parking. A vehicle would pull in, one would be leaving, and they would take that spot. Then another, and another.

When we went in, we waited for our names to be checked off, got the ballots, proceeded to the little ballot tables, filled it out and then to the machine that digested and counted our ballots. It didn't take long. Town Clerk Timothy Corcoran was obviously well-prepared for a large turn-out. My nose followed past the donuts and coffee, to the fresh baked cookies. I bought a few, and a home made cinnamon quick bread for the house. I talked to the grandson for a couple minutes, and confirmed that he had voted (his first election). He had to turn off the little convection oven because it threw a breaker. But the smell of cookies was in the air, and they were selling like hotcakes.