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Election day
November 7th, 2006 10:00 pmFor some bizarre reason, when asked if I would be an Officer of Election for my County, I said yes. Although I said yes figuring that I would work my local poll with my neighbor, I was sent to the next polling district over.
The day consists of getting up at 4 am & being at said polling place by 5 am & help set up the polling area with the needed signage & voting apparatus. This particular polling station has two machines on which citizens can cast their ballots.
This election day is a big one, even though it is not a presidential election year. The American public seems to be rather fed up with how the GOP has mucked everything up & I am hopeful that the poll results will send a strong message to those in Washington.
I spend my 15 (yes, FIFTEEN) hour day with 3 older ladies who know each other & have done this before. They are nice ladies, but not very tech savvy when it comes to dealing with the electronic voting machines. Yours truly gets to work the button box which monitors number of votes cast & prepares the voting station for the next person.
This year in Virginia, the marriage issue is on the ballot & I fear that many folks came to vote because of it, rather than anything else. The bill has been pushed as "one man, one woman" without going into any of the little details of the legislation. Out here in the country, you can bet they are going to be voting to keep marriage heterosexual. << sigh >> If they bother to read the fine print, they might find verbiage that could eventually be used against heterosexual non-married couples ... but all they know is "one man, one woman".
One older gentleman, however, came in & announced he couldn't vote yes to that marriage bill because he feels that it should be "one man, two women" because he needs two ladies just to take care of him. Trust me, I mean one to cook & one to clean. What the heck you were thinking? The guy was 80!
Many folks came in wanting some sort of clarification on the marriage bill, just make sure they were voting the "right" way. The Chief Election Officer was quick to say that if they wanted "one man, one woman" they needed to vote yes. On the other hand, bit my tongue & directed them to the text of the full legislation & advised they read it very carefully. << sigh >>
Another item on the ballot concerned an outdated amendment that needed to be removed from the VA Constitution. Almost no one seemed to know about that one ~ including my co-workers. I used my best 'Richmond mindset' to translate what the proposed amendment was about. The Chief Election Officer liked my explanation so much that she directed everyone who asked about my way.
The day went pretty smooth for the most part, the people watching was pretty nifty & my co-workers & I all shared our snacks. (We had all packed plenty of goodies, apparently each worried that she would starve to death.
The "want to strangle a complete stranger" moment of the day when some Nascar-loving redneck lady came in & asked us how should she vote. Biting my tongue from telling her to go home & never come out ever again, I instead told her that we were not allowed to instruct citizens on how they should place their vote. She then clarified that she only needed to know how to vote on the "one man, one woman" thing so that she voted right. Again, I bit my tongue & pointed to where she could read the legislation for herself. << shudder >>
Our 15-hour day went by pretty fast really ... until about 4 pm when it ground to a screeching halt. Every *hour* we checked the time only to find that just ten minutes had passed.
And then, the time came that we had been looking for ~ 7 pm ~ poll closing time! Four ladies have probably never packed up a polling place so fast in election day history. However, our progress was ground to a halt in trying to figure out the wrap-up procedures. It took almost an hour but we lived through it.
All in all, I am absolutely amazed that our election process works AT ALL in this country. I received virtually no training for my duties, nor had any one else. We had THREE different sets of instructions & while they did not necessarily conflict each other, they did not mirror each other either. To add extra frustration to the process, the closing instructions failed to mention anything about transferring our data once the polls were closed. A *minor* omission!
In case you are wondering ... I will receive a whopping $100 for my trouble.
The day consists of getting up at 4 am & being at said polling place by 5 am & help set up the polling area with the needed signage & voting apparatus. This particular polling station has two machines on which citizens can cast their ballots.
This election day is a big one, even though it is not a presidential election year. The American public seems to be rather fed up with how the GOP has mucked everything up & I am hopeful that the poll results will send a strong message to those in Washington.
I spend my 15 (yes, FIFTEEN) hour day with 3 older ladies who know each other & have done this before. They are nice ladies, but not very tech savvy when it comes to dealing with the electronic voting machines. Yours truly gets to work the button box which monitors number of votes cast & prepares the voting station for the next person.
This year in Virginia, the marriage issue is on the ballot & I fear that many folks came to vote because of it, rather than anything else. The bill has been pushed as "one man, one woman" without going into any of the little details of the legislation. Out here in the country, you can bet they are going to be voting to keep marriage heterosexual. << sigh >> If they bother to read the fine print, they might find verbiage that could eventually be used against heterosexual non-married couples ... but all they know is "one man, one woman".
One older gentleman, however, came in & announced he couldn't vote yes to that marriage bill because he feels that it should be "one man, two women" because he needs two ladies just to take care of him. Trust me, I mean one to cook & one to clean. What the heck you were thinking? The guy was 80!
Many folks came in wanting some sort of clarification on the marriage bill, just make sure they were voting the "right" way. The Chief Election Officer was quick to say that if they wanted "one man, one woman" they needed to vote yes. On the other hand, bit my tongue & directed them to the text of the full legislation & advised they read it very carefully. << sigh >>
Another item on the ballot concerned an outdated amendment that needed to be removed from the VA Constitution. Almost no one seemed to know about that one ~ including my co-workers. I used my best 'Richmond mindset' to translate what the proposed amendment was about. The Chief Election Officer liked my explanation so much that she directed everyone who asked about my way.
The day went pretty smooth for the most part, the people watching was pretty nifty & my co-workers & I all shared our snacks. (We had all packed plenty of goodies, apparently each worried that she would starve to death.
The "want to strangle a complete stranger" moment of the day when some Nascar-loving redneck lady came in & asked us how should she vote. Biting my tongue from telling her to go home & never come out ever again, I instead told her that we were not allowed to instruct citizens on how they should place their vote. She then clarified that she only needed to know how to vote on the "one man, one woman" thing so that she voted right. Again, I bit my tongue & pointed to where she could read the legislation for herself. << shudder >>
Our 15-hour day went by pretty fast really ... until about 4 pm when it ground to a screeching halt. Every *hour* we checked the time only to find that just ten minutes had passed.
And then, the time came that we had been looking for ~ 7 pm ~ poll closing time! Four ladies have probably never packed up a polling place so fast in election day history. However, our progress was ground to a halt in trying to figure out the wrap-up procedures. It took almost an hour but we lived through it.
All in all, I am absolutely amazed that our election process works AT ALL in this country. I received virtually no training for my duties, nor had any one else. We had THREE different sets of instructions & while they did not necessarily conflict each other, they did not mirror each other either. To add extra frustration to the process, the closing instructions failed to mention anything about transferring our data once the polls were closed. A *minor* omission!
In case you are wondering ... I will receive a whopping $100 for my trouble.
