The Little Sapphire

The Little Sapphire of Florida, Alachua County, has 80,000 Democratics voters, 46,000 Republicans, and 38,000 others. My husband calls it a blue oasis in a red desert.

We have made a home here for twenty-six years. Since we have been old enough to vote, we have voted in every primary and general election. Today is the last day of early voting. We have have already cast our ballots, a week ago on the first day of early voting.

In this graphic map, you can see how each county voted in the 2008 election: 
http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/states/president/florida.html



In this graphic map, you can see how each state in the union has voted during past presidential elections:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/15/us/politics/swing-history.html?ref=politics 

Florida moves back and forth-- not as a pendulum, more as a fist with one finger pointing toward Cuba. It is "the state with the prettiest name" in Elizabeth Bishop's poem, built on shifting sands, moody and unpredictable as a mesocyclone, turned this way and that by wind and tide.

I do not like to think back past 2008. It chills me to think of 2000, when votes were thrown out and we realized how fragile is the integrity of an election even in a nation that believes in universal suffrage. I am looking forward to election night on Tuesday, with excitement and apprehension. Every scenario has been anticipated but not played out. My father said about basketball, "A lot can happen in two minutes." Our president plays basketball, and this election feels like it has two minutes of playing time yet to go.