Got my vote

    

Working the polls for elections can be a long, long day. But it has its rewards.

      Yesterday, for instance, was fairly slow. Primaries don't attract as many voters. But we got an early surprise. We arrived at 6 a.m. as usual to set up. A poll challenger showed up at 6:30, his credentials in hand.  A second poll challenger showed up a few minutes later. Evidently they thought set up began at 6:30 and were  sorry to have missed the first steps.  

     We had been warned that more volunteers were applying for poll challenger credentials so we had been expecting one to stop by during the day, but two before the polls opened was overkill. We had plenty of room so we set aside a table and two chairs for them and got to work.  One of the poll watchers asked if I felt  intimidated to have him looking over my shoulder as I compared voter applications to the drivers' licenses. 

       "No," I said, "but I'm afraid you are going to get bored."

         And the poll watchers probably did get bored. One left about 10 a.m. and the other at 1:30. But I was entertained by the voters. Like the elderly woman who had trouble filling out the application to vote and was really overwhelmed by the ballot. She asked for help a couple of times, but seemed determined to wade through all that small type and figure it out. Her husband sat nearby and watched.

        We worried that she would make the mistake of cross voting, a common error in primaries where voters are instructed to vote for only one party, Republican or Democrat, not both.  When she finally finished her ballot and placed it into the tabulator, everyone held their breath. We were so afraid she had made a mistake and it would be rejected. We almost wanted to applaud when it was accepted as a successfully cast ballot. 

          And then there was the 30-year-old from Venezuela. He was voting in his first election. He had become a citizen a year earlier. "I have researched all the candidates and I am ready to vote," he announce excitedly. Then we explained that since this was a primary he could only vote for one party. That wasn't part of his research. But he too voted successfully and received the coveted "I voted" sticker.

       More than a dozen people didn't vote successfully on the first try.  "But the Democrats don't have a candidate for that office so I voted for the Republican." Sorry, you can't do that. Another had his ballot rejected because he marked his choice with big check marks instead of blacking in the circle. 

        As the day wore on the pace picked up. From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. we had a steady stream of young couples getting off work, some still dressed in "scrubs" from a hospital shift. Young and old, black and white and several shades between. They came to vote. They came to exercise the privilege of living in a democracy. 

        I was sorry the poll challengers didn't stay longer., until we counted down the last minutes to 8 p.m. Until we closed out the tabulator and everyone signed all three copies of the final tape. Until we went through the write in bin and found two votes for James Craig. Until we packed it all up to take to the clerk's office.  Election Days are long, but a capsule of America. I love them.