The Day After.....

I feel like I just survived a Nuclear exchange.... I am so wasted today. The election judge's job is a long one. I expected it to be a long day, but it was fun none the less.

overall, our turnout was pretty high, well, higher than I expected at least. there was only a couple periods where we had no voters and they didn't last all that long, a few minutes at most. It was a pretty steady trickle all the way up to about 4pm. that is when things started hopping. Of course long around 2:30, one of the two booth controllers (JBC's) decided to take a holiday and crap out on us. which only left 5 functioning booths until we could replace it. That finally happened about 5PM just as the expected after work crush showed up. Relax, no votes were lost. The machine's display failed, but appeared to otherwise be functioning normally. We could probably have operated it by the braile method, but the chance that the wrong button would be pushed was too great, so they replaced it. long around 6:00pm, we actually had a line forming.

We were lucky in that we did not have to have any ballots cast provisionally, there were about three situations where a provisional ballot could have been done, but after the facts of life were explained to the voters in question (that it would essentially be an exercise in futility because they clearly were trying to vote in the wrong precinct which is not allowed. I didn't have any "grey area" voter problems, they were all pretty clear cut.) they decided that they should either try to get to the proper polling place, (or in the case of one voter that had driven across town 45 minutes to her old precinct (mine) only to arrive at 6:30 to discover that she should have gone to the polling place around the corner from her new residence) gave up and went home (after getting pretty bent out of shape, and then talking about how she could vote as her sister that still lived over here to which I told her no, that would NOT be allowed!). Sorry, rules are rules.

I had one family that came in, claiming thay had moved into the area 9 months ago from across town, the driver's lisences still showed the old address. her name did not come up in the database at all, after 3 or four different searches, the lady on the phone asked me if the voter had ever registered to vote. I asked her and she replied (with a deer in the headlights look, "no...." aha! I think I see the problem..... the Husband HAD registered, but was still showing to be in the old precinct. He had not changed addresses on his Voter registration. (assuming he really HAD moved, they had no documentation to that effect at all.) They left with a voter registration form and a change of address form.....but no vote cast.

I had another guy wander in, long dirty stringy hair, huge abcesses in his mouth dirty and ragged clothes and bare feet, hell he looked like a cross between a 60's hippie and a street bum with AIDS (at least he had bathed recently, the BO was not noticeable...) with no drivers license, photo ID, Voter Registration, or ANY form of ID at all. and expected us to let him vote. I explained to him that unless I had something to prove who he was and where he lived, I was unable to let him vote. end of story. he wandered off (on foot) never to be seen again.... I suspect he is a bum that lives in the woods near the school where we were voting. hey buddy, you want to live off the grid, fine by me, but you'll just have to accept that that means not participating in the democratic process that makes the grid possible in the first place.