Election Day

My day started with a meeting at 6:15 am.  Then ,I was a poll watcher until 10am. This was crazy - I sat behind 3 women who were checking people off their lists as they voted. I  had a list of known Democratic supporters and had to overhear the names and addresses (they were listed by road number) and check them off so that.....

At 10am, the COG could enter all the data 4 of us (in 4 precincts) had gathered so that.....

New canvass lists (called turfs) could be generated, excluding those who had already voted, so that.....

We could walk 16 'turfs' talking to people and leaving door hangers that reminded people to vote. This is all part of the Get Out The Vote initiative the Democrats are using.

The COG drove me around 2 whole turfs and I ran up to houses, knocked, rang bells, chatted, and left Remember to Vote signs.  I stopped at 4pm, about an hour past the point where I had given up the will to live and was basically a zombie.

The COG is now out holding signs by the polling place in the freezing cold (coldest day since last February).  What a guy.

I, on the other hand, am home.

The Guardian tweeted that a man died at a polling place today. EMTs came and revived him. The first thing he said upon regaining conciousness was, 'have I voted?'

That could have been me - only I would have said - 'have you voted?'

At 4pm 5,800 voters out of 9,500 in our town had voted. That's around 61%, and it's before the after-work rush.  I can hardly believe those numbers - though they came from an official source.

Post Script:  In the final count, 80% of the registered voters in our town actually voted.  Pretty incredible.