The Post-Election Wind-Down
November 6th, 2008 § Leave a Comment
So now that I’ve had a few days to process Tuesday’s outcome and can string together more than a few coherent sentences, I wanted to post some of my musings from Election Day.
Working the polls was long but fun. We had a huge rush of voters when the polls first opened at 6:00 a.m. and another small rush around dinner time, with a steady trickle of voters throughout the rest of the day. The district I was working in had a 90% voter turn out and a good amount of first-time voters, which was awesome. I was proud of all the first-timers and remembered how monumental it felt when I voted for the first time four years ago. I was surprised at how many people had no idea which voting district they belonged in, though. Our polling place held two districts — 6 and 9 — for the same development, divided by street name. The town itself was divided into 10 districts, spread between 5 or 6 different polling places. I would estimate that 60% of all the voters who turned out at our polling place on Tuesday had to be redirected to the right district. My favorite was asking people for their street address to help them figure out their district; most people replied with either, "Uh, Lumberton…?" or "Bobby’s Run…?", the name of the development for both districts 6 and 9. Thanks for stating the obvious; now help me out with some specifics so I can figure out which of the 9 other districts you belong in! Despite the constant *headdesk* moments, though, I’m glad that I had the experience. It was fun to feel like such a part of the process on such a historic night.
And now, whether you voted Republican, Democrat, or third-party; whether you believe that our President-elect is a terrorist-endorsing socialist or that he is the next John F. Kennedy; whether you fear or celebrate what’s ahead in the next four years, I hope that we can lay aside some of our differences and recognize the sheer gravity of the social and historical impact of Tuesday’s outcome. That is hopefully something that everyone can celebrate.
Democracy At Work…
November 3rd, 2008 § 1 Comment
So I voted today after going through a crazy ordeal to obtain an absentee ballot because I’ll be working the polls outside of my voting district tomorrow.
Here’s the whole crazy story. At the end of September, I applied to work the polls in my county on election day. It pays $200 for the day and I’ll be doing my part to stop voter fraud, so I thought, "Why not?" I faxed in my application and got a letter in the mail about a week later with the date for a mandatory training session to learn how to open and close the polls. The officials who gave the training told us prospective poll workers to expect our assignments in the mail should we be chosen to work on election day. We also filled out a form with our contact info in case they didn’t have an opening for us until the last minute. I filled out my form and specified that I could be contacted to work up until the day before the election. We were all encouraged to apply for absentee ballots, as it was likely that we’d be working outside our voting districts and probably wouldn’t have enough time to vote in our home districts over the hour-long break we’ll be allotted.
Fast-forward to last week, when the Election Board called my house to say they didn’t need me. I hadn’t bothered to apply for an absentee ballot, because I didn’t want to vote absentee if I didn’t have to. Something about voting in an actual booth makes it all feel more official. I was bummed at the loss of my potential $200 pay check as well as the loss of a pretty cool experience. I was happy that I didn’t have to vote absentee, though.
Fast-forward again to today, in the middle of my late-afternoon naptime after a hard day of filling out job applications at every Barnes & Noble Bookstore in a 20-mile radius of my house. I was in the middle of some half-lucid dream when the phone rang. It was the Election Board calling to ask if I was still interested in working tomorrow. I answered with a "Hells yes!", wrote down the address of the polling place which is only one town away from my own, and took a drive to make sure I could find the place before I set out to start my day at 5:15 a.m. tomorrow. I left my house at 3:45 p.m. and found the polling place a little after 4:00. While I was out, I remembered that today was the cut-off for obtaining absentee ballots, so I took a short drive to the county courthouse to get my ballot and vote so I wouldn’t have to stress about getting it done over my break tomorrow.
I got to the courthouse at about 4:30, only to be told by a security guard that the cut-off for obtaining an absentee ballot was at 3:00 this afternoon. I’d have to head up to the 7th floor to see a judge to be approved for a ballot. That’s right. I had to see the judge who had the state attorney general on speakerphone to verify that I was a registered voter and approve my need to vote absentee since I had missed the deadline by an hour and a half. Everything checked out after the attorney general’s office had fits with the spelling of my name (I heard them talking in the background over the speaker phone: "There’s no Rebecca listed? Try it with one ‘c’?" Then, "Can you spell your first name for us?" After which the attorney general joked that he had to give me a demerit for not spelling my difficult name for them earlier. "This is going on your permanent record!"). The judge sent me back down to the county clerk’s office to fill out an absentee ballot application which I then had to bring back up to him to receive a court order which I then had to bring to the clerk’s office along with my application so I could finally receive my ballot, which I promptly filled out in the privacy of the empty ladies’ room and dropped off at the Board of Elections in the building next door.
And that’s the story of how I voted early. See you at the polls tomorrow!
