91 percent

According to our rough calculations (readily produced from my Treo’s calculator), when our precinct closed last night, we had helped 91 percent of registered voters assigned to the Lee Center vote. But that was the end, I should start at the beginning.

My alarm went off at 4:15 am, and after a sleepy shower I packed my things and Chad and I left for the Nanny J Lee Community Center. We got there at 5 am and parked. I went for my assignment and Chad joined the line that began its life over an hour earlier.

We were all sworn in as a group, and I was on the meet and greet team. For the first part of the day, I was outside: helping to make sure that people were in the right line and answering questions. Primarily, people wanted to know why the N-Z line was so much shorter than the A-M line. Our five poll books for check in went A-C, D-H, I-M, N-S, and T-Z, so the line was split in half: A-M and N-Z. In retrospect, it should have been split A-H and M-Z, but hindsight is 20/20. The N-Z line was never longer than an hour, whereas the early morning voters in the A-M line waited over two hours at one point. But everyone decided to vote early! I believe the line was at it’s longest between 8-9am, after that it dwindled to a point that brought it out from the back of the rear parking lot and in the building.

As the line died down I moved inside to try and get the inside lines moving a little faster, and by around 11:30, the line was gone and never really came back. The rest of the day was a steady stream of voters who were surprised at the lack of line. I sat at the door to the polling room and directed people to their table for check in. When we finally closed at 7pm, there were only two voters casting their ballot, and the last one to leave was a first time voter.

We watched the machine tally the votes – and I got to keep a copy of the results! Presidential results: 1741 to Obama, 779 to McCain, 7 to Chuck Baldwin, 9 to Bob Barr, 1 to Cynthia McKinney, 7 to Ralph Nader, and a total of 14 write ins. Four voters wrote in Ron Paul, and four people wrote in Hillary Clinton, but they wrote her name 4 different ways. There were also votes for Donald Duck and Keanu Reeves. After getting our results, we put away the voting machines, waited around for some official tallies (using my Treo to double check numbers), signed our oaths and finally left at 8pm. It had been a long, exhausting day, and I am VERY glad I did it.

Chad and I met my fellow election worker Amanda and her co-worker/friend at Murphy’s at around 9pm for some drinks and hung out talking for a little while, before we went home to watch the returns come in.

Thoughts

• A lot of people brought their kids in to watch them vote. It was fantastic (and cute!).
• I will definitely work the polls again if I’m needed.
• Despite some of the early morning grumblings about the lines, people were very excited happy to vote.
• Getting to keep a copy of the electronic vote tally is really neat!
• Having over 90% of registered voters in our precinct come out to cast their ballot was really really really amazing, and makes me feel very good about my community.

Finally, I don’t post my political opinions on this website because I believe that no matter what the political situation is in this nation, we are all here together. There are political divisions in my family, in many American families, and across this country; I prefer to not contribute to that divide. Additionally, I aspire to join the US State Department as a Foreign Service Officer, a career that will give me the opportunity to serve the citizens of the United States of America no matter the administration or its policies. So, while I have much more to say on the matter, I’ll just say the following: Watching President-Elect Obama’s acceptance speech at the end of a very long, exciting day brought me to tears. I, like most voters (especially of my generation), am very hopeful for the future of this nation and this world. You may now return to your regular, apolitical, blogcast.

Tags: election