THE RIGHT TO VOTE

Checking in a day after the historic 2004 election.

I volunteered with our local Democratic party headquarters to be a poll-watcher both Monday, Nov.1 (absentee ballot casting) and Nov. 2, election day. I got used to explaining that I was there to help make sure Illinois didn't become another Florida, which got knowing nods from people of either party!

Monday was a bit exceptional, since people came to vote at the county clerk's office, itself, which really wasn't built for the volume of voters, especially the many handicapped who came to save them wear and tear at regular polling places on election day itself. (I'm not sure if they were any better off voting in the cramped, non-accessible space the balloting was held.) At the end of my 12-5pm shift, one of the employees (who treated me and my fellow poll-watcher Jean only slightly better than lepers) asked me what I thought. I said that I was impressed at the level of sacrifice many people had made to come to cast their vote and the seriousness they obviously felt about the process. One man had actually had surgery only a few days earlier and had to be accompanied by his hospital nurse! (On top of that, he had been sent to the wrong location. He actually had to go out and vote in another county!) One woman brought her blind father, Mr. Martini, and another working-class couple had evidently gotten their 80-something mother out of an old folks home to come vote. (I'm not sure who was doing whom the favor.)

Tuesday I decided to follow the old advice to "vote early and vote often". Although they didn't let me vote more than once, for some reason. That way, I'd have time the rest of the day to help out with poll-watching or other duties. My polling place was the parish hall of our local Catholic church, St. Pat's. It has a huge, roomy eating area with tables, but that's not where the booths were. Some bozo had decided to stick the whole show into a small Sunday School room where people had to go in and out the same door past the entire line. Voting shouldn't have to be that hard! (And poorly planned.) Illinois still uses the same punch-card system that got Florida into trouble so much in 2000. I guess we didn't learn anything from THAT debacle. I made sure to punch all my chads like I was an RN giving a shot!

Later that afternoon, someone said that one polling station had no poll-watchers at all, so I volunteered to go. Turned out to be the same building as Monday, in a different room. There were four women "of a certain age" sitting there, all looking like old pros. And a guy outside who put the finished ballots in the box who had to be called "Uncle Bob," at least that's the way he looked! One woman seemed very disconcerted to find out I was a poll watcher. They examined my official poll-watcher form like I was a criminal impersonating an FBI agent, but finally accepted my presence. Turns out the woman had had a very negative experience in a previous election with a poll-watcher who was very intrusive and antagonistic. I said I was just there to watch and that I'd be happy to serve as gopher if they had any emergencies. Turns out the first was to find someone in the county clerk's building to open the DOOR! They had gone till 4:00 with the closest door to the polling place locked. Traffic was surprisingly light, about 2 people per 5 minutes even though it was after work. The main flood had come when the polls opened early, at 6:00 am. The rest of the day was pretty steady and manageable - except for one time when an employee from, evidently, a facility for mentally handicapped adults who had brought in 5 of the them, all who needed personal help in the booth. And a judge from each party had to be there. As a (rare) Democrat in that location, I was called on once to step in and read the ballot to the handicapped woman, page after page to the bitter end! She seemed to dive right for certain names, like she had been "coached", as one poll judge speculated. But I suspected they were mainly there to vote on a city referendum raising taxes for increasing accessibility for the handicapped. Later, I dutifully called in the suspicious group to the Democratic office, as I had been told, just in case those 5 votes actually might matter in a close election. Illinois, fortunately, was spared razor-close races - unlike New Mexico.

At 8:00 that night I met some friends at a neighborhood tavern to watch the results on TV (sports bars are well equipped with TV's - the station depends on the customer). I ended up staying up till about 2:00 in the morning watching results at home. By that time, Edwards had spoken defiantly of waiting till Ohio votes were all in, and I could see another 2000 in the making.

Naturally, I was disappointed in the presidential results (although Illinois with Obama now has 2 Democratic senators). Not because Kerry lost, per se, but because I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach about four more years with the current direction of Bush's foreign policy. We have cut ties to almost all our friends overseas and are hated as a nation perhaps more than at any time in my 47 year life-span. We are very alone now in a dangerous, terror-filled world in which we need all the friends we can get. And Bush seems incapable of admitting to any errors, although "to err is human." I don't feel safer under Bush. I feel more exposed to danger than ever and trapped in a train hurtling over the side of a cliff. The Republican may have won the battle, but the country could very well lose the war ...