The Longest Day of My Life

I survived my first experience as an election poll worker, but it was the longest day of my life! I had to be at my precinct at 6:00 a.m. and I left at 8:00 p.m. to come home. I tried not to watch the clock all day, but since I had to take a vote count every hour, it was impossible not to keep looking at my watch and wonder why the time wasn't going as quickly as it did when I was at home trying to get 100 things done in a day. Oh to have the clock tick slowly then! We stayed busy most all of the 12 hours the polls were open and I was grateful for that. I did manage to read my book and magazines that I had brought here and there and it was nice to get caught up on some reading. I was the gal handing out the "I Voted" sticker and thanking everyone for voting. I also ran the touch screen voting machine for handicapped or anyone else who wanted to use the machine. I had 10 voters use the machine. One was a funny story.

This guy came in seemingly drunk, insisting he wanted to vote. He didn't have any photo I.D. out of a list of about 10 things he could show, but he knew about provisional ballots and insisted on voting that way. The ladies at the sign-in gave him a TOUCH SCREEN provisional ballot and sent him to me. Why they didn't just give him a REGULAR provisional ballot and send him to a booth, I don't know, but he's heading my way. But first, while they are filling out the provisional ballot info he pulls out his bottle of whisky and starts drinking. The lady in charge of our precinct says, "Now sir, put that away. You can't be drinking in here." To which he replies, "Well, there's a law that you can't drink and drive but I don't know if any law that says you can't drink and vote." So, away he went getting even more drunk. I pretty much cast his ballot for him in an effort to get him out of the building fast, but he had to complain first about not getting a receipt for voting. Drunk people are just lovely.

Another guy came into the building about 7:20 and announced he was here to vote. We told him the polls closed at 7:00 sharp and he said, "Well, who do I talk to?" I just love people who think the rules apply to everyone but them. Kay told him he was talking to the lady in charge and there was nothing he could do to vote. I told him that voting start and end times were mandated by legislature and that shut him right up. I'll bet he's on time in November.

And to top it all off, at the end of the evening Romney didn't even win the vote here in Florida. And to make matters worse, Hillary won the Democratic vote! Aargh, double whammy. Even though it was a looooooong day, I think I'll go back in the fall for more.