Pollsitting and other election stuff

I was a pollwatcher yesterday.

I had a list of voters provided by the county Democratic organization who had been vetted somehow (Lord knows how) and shown to be friendly to our goals. I was to mark off each as they voted, then take a list of the ones who hadn't voted to the precinct house for further phone follow up. Also, I was to monitor for electoral malfeasance. Unlike the experience of Mark Harris at PRELUDIUM, who did the same thing as I, there was no Republican pollwatcher.

I'll get back to that.

But I will tell you now that being amidst all of the people who had turned out to exercise their rights as citizens was incredibly buoying. I was there at 0645 and when I heard the head poll judge shout at 7, "The polls are open!" I felt a thrill flash through my entire body. Four precincts were voting in the same large space, and I know that the two precincts I was aware of ran 300 voters through in the first hour.

Totally insane, but so great.

The election judges with whom I worked were very aloof at first (who can blame them?), but softened as the morning went on. They became annoyed with me toward the end as I answered a question from a voter that they thought I should have referred to them, which I probably should have, but since the information had been on the front page of the paper that morning it did not occur to me to not answer it. They glared at me until I apologized.

I realized that there was no Republican pollwatcher because of the supreme confidence they had that they would win all of the local elections. Which, unfortunately, they did. Some local Democrats even lost their seats. I do live in Republicanland.

Maybe if we hadn't been so distracted by the abortion issue, we could have worked harder for our local progressives. But, we did win the Big Prize!

A clearer head, pollwatching, and escaping the snake

My back is better today, although a nerve must have been pinched somewhere as my left arm is all pins and needles. I can live with that. I opted after I washed the cell phone to forgo any more Flexeril, and just take Motrin. Today, I don't know that I'll need anything.

I agreed to be a pollwatcher on Election Day. I went to the training last night, which was pretty basic. I'm all about preparation, though, and felt better about this since I went to the training. It was nice to see a woman there at the training I had not seen since I was one of her nurses during her cancer treatment several years ago. I also saw a man I just met at our new church this past Sunday. And I met a woman who was involved with financing a writing project I did earlier this year for a non profit.

Funny how politics unites various aspects of my life.

Speaking of writing, I picked up a copy of the magazine Poets & Writers at the public library and found some writing exercises to do. They are easy; they just require the doing. I told someone a while back that I want to write, but when I think I will sit down to do it, the laptop turns into a hissing snake and I run away. I'm trying to get past that. Having little projects like the one for the non profit has helped.

Reading ties into all of this. I've found myself reading much more. In the last few weeks I've read 5 or 6 books, which is incredible for me. Reading is always ruined for me when I think I must read, as for school, instead of reading for pleasure. It takes a couple of years to relearn the joy of reading. I must be at that point now. I've even reading authors I never heard of, such of Amy Hempel. It is good to stretch.

Ten years ago I saw a tinted photograph in an antique store. Judging from the dress of the people in it, I'd say it was made around the turn of the 20th century. There was a little boy on the porch railing in the foreground, and an elderly couple in the background. The man looked off to the side, while his wife looked directly into the camera, her face open and smiling. I loved that photograph, but didn't buy it in time. It inspired me to make up a story around the elderly couple, though. That tale has been in my head for years. I just need to write it down.

I actually wrote three pages yesterday. It felt good to play with the words and the structure. We'll see how this goes!