6:10 – Daniel drops me off outside St. Paul’s Lutheran. It is dark, and bitter, bitter cold.
6:23 – First calamity of the day. It is so cold that masking tape won’t hold the official “Polling Place” signs up.
6:52 – The polls officially open in 8 minutes and we are still hustling getting ballots initialed, machines turned on and functioning, paperwork distributed in heaps and piles and swales. There are 4 people already here, waiting to vote – it is so embarrassing to have them see the inner disorder of the process.
7:43 – A “bleepedy-bleepedy-bleep” from the tabulator indicates the first ballot error of the day. Someone has cross voted – selected one candidate from both the Republican and Democrat columns. This will not be the first time this mistake is made. By a long shot.
9:03 – A couple have come in to vote and are now waiting for their newly 18-year-old daughter to arrive and register. They’ve got a camera ready – so cute.
9:14 – OK, this is disappointing as hell (to quote Jayne Cobb). There will be no treats, no coffee, and most importantly, no lunch provided to the poll workers. Visions of donuts and java are just that – visions. The lunch issue is serious – as Daniel has dropped me off here with only a ClifBar and a bottle of water, I am without food options. Can’t drive anywhere. Can’t realistically walk anywhere – partly because we are in a food-free stretch of Sherman Avenue, and partly because it is, as I may have mentioned, butt cold out there. I call Daniel, who is still at home with the appraiser, and he will bring me lunch and a box of goodies from Manna Cafe.
11:40 – I’ve been working the new registration table most of the morning, and am really heartened by the number of people coming in to register for the first time who are well over 18 years old. Seems the past 8 years of ineptitude have brought out folks who were previously uninvolved in politics. At least that’s the spin I’m putting on it.
1:19 – This is a Lutheran church basement, in a neighborhood predominately made up of older folks retired from Oscar Mayer, so it is not surprising that voting is a social affair. One of my co-poll-workers has worked this ward for 14 years, and she seems to know at least half the folks that come in. And if she doesn’t, another voter does. It’s cute, but kind of frustrating when I am checking people in, because Doris goes right to their name in the voter roll book, and I inevitably have to ask, “What’s their name?” while the expectant voter looks at me like I’m an alien.
3:51 – Did I say that I am younger than all the poll workers (except our Chief Inspector) by 30+ years? The advantage is that I can read the voter roll book more swiftly, can hear the tabulator indicate a mis-marked ballot sooner, and more readily understand people’s names when they say them. The disadvantage is that I can read the voter roll book more swiftly, hear the tabulator indicate a mis-marked ballot sooner…and therefore am usually the one dealing with problems and confusion.
4:12 – The absentee ballots have arrived. It strikes me as odd that to vote absentee you must have a witness sign your envelope when you need no such witness if you vote in person.
4:15 – We run across one absentee voter whose name in the voter rolls has “ID required” indicated. Huh? How can you provide ID if you are voting absentee? We decide to ignore it for now, hoping some inspiration about how to process this ballot arrives from somewhere.
5:07 – Someone discovers in the packet of official materials a sign explaining “What Happens to Your Vote if You Vote Two Parties.” Well. This would have been useful to display back at say, oh, 7:00 am.
5:22 – We haven’t had what you would call a line all day, never more than 3 or 4 folks waiting to check in. But now a horde has descended – a shift ended at Oscar Mayer at 5:00 and those folks headed over here to vote.
6:10 – Two young men arrive and register as new voters. I take their registrations, so I recognize their names later, after the polls have closed and we are processing ballots with write in candidates. They have each written themselves in for County Supervisor. Ha, ha, guys.
6:36 – We’re losing the black markers used to mark ballots. We started the day with a couple of dozen, but are down to nine or ten. Are people taking them as souvenirs?
7:00 – An hour until the polls close. We’ve had about 650 people through so far today, out of a total of 1146 registered voters. But we’ve also registered 86 new voters, so we are hovering at the 50% turnout mark.
7:27 – A mom with two small kids arrives, winded and frozen. They missed their bus, so walked many blocks in the cold. When she takes off her coat, it’s revealed that she is pregnant. We’ve had a few pregnant women in today, as well as a few couple with smallish children. Sign of the tilting of the neighborhood away from retirees toward young families? It is certainly one of the more affordable places to buy a house or rent an apartment in Madison.
7:56 – Walt and Kay head to the front door to announce the closing of the polls and pick up all the signs that have fallen down due to ineffective masking tape. We decide to put a note in the ward supplies box saying that we should be given duct tape next election.
8:00 – The last voter follows Walt and Kay in, votes and we are done. 780 voters total (including absentee ballots we’ve processed), 94 new or change-of-address voters registered.
8:37 – I write myself out on the timesheet, and bid my fellow poll-workers good night. Next election is April Fools Day.
