One polling place in Brentwood offered a zen voting experience with yoga, free valet parking, and the sounds of a sitar to help voters reduce stress. Michelle Valles reports live for Today in LA on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016.
While you may have studied the ballot propositions through and through, and understand exactly where your candidates stand on all of the issues, knowing whether there's going to be a harpist at your polling place can be a bit of a question mark.
There was, of course, a musician playing the harp at Luxe Hotel Sunset Boulevard back on Election Day in 2014. And other polling places around the country have sometimes incorporated live music, of the calming, string-sweet variety, to help those in the queue maintain a contemplative, ready-to-vote state.
So what does 2016 hold in the polling place add-on realm?
The Sunset Boulevard hotel is once again the cast-your-vote location for Brentwood denizens in precincts 9001354A and 9001364A, but this time a yoga instructor shall be at the ready, the better to help voters with a few breathing exercises and simple poses.
Small bites and refreshments will be nearby, and, instead of a harp this year, listen for the lovely tones of the sitar.
Across town, and downtown, the polling place at Cornerstone Theater Company will take on a poetic mien for Election Day. The troupe is coming together with RENT Poet and the Melrose Poetry Bureau to offer "one-on-one creative writing workshops..." built "...around the theme, 'what does it mean to vote'?"
If you prefer the visual arts to express yourself, there shall be art supplies at the ready. Nearby, The Pie Hole will have gratis coffee to those rocking the all-important "I Voted" sticker, as well as pieces of pie for sale (round up on your bill and help out the Cornerstone Theater Company).
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
So what creative exercises or meditation-focused happenings might your assigned polling place hold on Tuesday, Nov. 8?
Perhaps it will simply and nobly hold the hallowed hum of the electorate making their choices.
And perhaps the sights you'll see there will include proud voters sticking their "I Voted" sticker on their collars as they quickly exit in order to give other people in line the chance to have their say at the ballot box.
Breathe in, breathe out. And vote.
