Well, not really. I was attending a class on voting procedures because I have signed up to be an election officer and work at my precinct on Election Day. We practiced setting up and operating the voting machines and learned how to do the various accounting procedures.
So: Have any of you on the board ever worked at the polls? Got any stories of polling-place weirdness? I keep imagining that we’ll get a lot of odd voting this year because it’s a Presidential year and turnout will be higher than in other elections. Plus, here in Virginia we can write in candidates for President for the first time. My state is pretty solidly in Bush’s column but we have a pretty close Senate race and I suspect my precinct leans Democratic. Being at the polls from 5AM to 8PM will also keep me from checking the progress of the election on the Web every ten minutes.
I was a poll watcher a few times. Nothing unexpected ever happened. There was a rumor once that the opposition was going to challenge a couple of our voters, so I was prepared to challenge a couple of theirs, but they didn’t so I didn’t. It was pretty laid back in my precinct.
I worked at the polls in the '96 national election. Two things stand out in my mind. One, never wear control-top pantyhose if you’re going to be sitting on a metal folding chair for ten hours. Two, in the afternoon, a babelicious, Dave Pirner looking guy, with the requisite skater gear and white-guy dreads, came in. He was one of the few under-30s who was at our poll that day, and I was jello the whole time he was there. After he left, the old biddy next to me said, “I thought Halloween was last month!” :p! First you complain that young people are apathetic, then you make fun of someone who comes in to cast his vote. :p, I say again.
