(no subject)
Nov. 8th, 2006 09:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sereneAwoke around 4:30 or so yesterday. Left for the polls at 5:30, returned home around 10:30 last night, after performing my duty and dropping off one of the other workers at his home. Seventeen hours, most of which was spent on my feet (including two nice walks on my one-hour breaks, which kept me from exploding from my levels of hyper-energy). So exciting seeing people vote. So exciting helping them do it. So exciting talking the guy outside at 7:59 into coming in at the very last minute (literally) and voting provisionally -- he thought he couldn't vote because his precinct was in another city within the county.
Wrote this to some friends; reposting it out of laziness, with a typo corrected:
It was possibly the most exciting thing I've done this year, and it's been a pretty exciting year, what with trips to Tokyo and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pipyn's murphy bed.
It was also alternately stressful and tiring, but on the whole, I came home just buzzing with the excitement, and it took me hours to wind down and go to bed. Today, my feet hurt, my back is out, and I have a dehydration headache, but I'm still really glad I did it.
The most amusing part was actually one of the poll workers. She showed up half an hour late, and she lives IN THE BUILDING we were holding the polling in. She bummed money from a pollworker for cigarettes, then went around the room trying to get more. She had to be told not to ask the voters (and the *election observers*) for cigarettes. She cried because I gave first choice of the yummy pastries I'd bought for the group to those who'd showed up on time. She scolded me when I returned with the pastries because I hadn't also bought her cigarettes. She kept falling asleep, and had to be roused to give the voters their ballots. She was very upset with me for insisting that she change the payroll roster to indicate the time she actually showed up, rather than the time we all were there. And then the second the polls closed, she bailed. Said her chest hurt, and she was going to lie down. So we closed the polls without her. It was my entertainment for the day dealing with this woman, but I've heard far worse stories, so I think I had it pretty easy. At least all my people showed up.
Wrote this to some friends; reposting it out of laziness, with a typo corrected:
It was possibly the most exciting thing I've done this year, and it's been a pretty exciting year, what with trips to Tokyo and
pipyn's murphy bed.It was also alternately stressful and tiring, but on the whole, I came home just buzzing with the excitement, and it took me hours to wind down and go to bed. Today, my feet hurt, my back is out, and I have a dehydration headache, but I'm still really glad I did it.
The most amusing part was actually one of the poll workers. She showed up half an hour late, and she lives IN THE BUILDING we were holding the polling in. She bummed money from a pollworker for cigarettes, then went around the room trying to get more. She had to be told not to ask the voters (and the *election observers*) for cigarettes. She cried because I gave first choice of the yummy pastries I'd bought for the group to those who'd showed up on time. She scolded me when I returned with the pastries because I hadn't also bought her cigarettes. She kept falling asleep, and had to be roused to give the voters their ballots. She was very upset with me for insisting that she change the payroll roster to indicate the time she actually showed up, rather than the time we all were there. And then the second the polls closed, she bailed. Said her chest hurt, and she was going to lie down. So we closed the polls without her. It was my entertainment for the day dealing with this woman, but I've heard far worse stories, so I think I had it pretty easy. At least all my people showed up.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-11-08 05:45 pm (UTC)Thank you so much!
Date: 2006-11-08 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-08 07:41 pm (UTC)Yay You for doing such an unsung, but important job!
no subject
Date: 2006-11-08 08:41 pm (UTC)You are so good at being cheerful and finding amusement in potential annoyances.
Is it paid work? How does one get it? (How did she get it?)
I was a scrutineer last Canadian federal election (a volunteer working for one of the candidates as a witness to fair procedures and also an eye on the voters' list to see who our candidate's outside workers needed to chase). So I got to see the Poll Clerks and Deputy Returning Officers in action. Many of them do it for many elections in a row. A lot of them are retired people. They mostly bring coolers full of food and drink, socialize when there are no lineups, share their cookies with the scrutineers, knit, and read novels. It actually looked like a lot of fun for a short-term paid job.
What I loved best about the process was watching the number of immigrants coming to vote in their first election.