Yesterday, I volunteered to serve as a voter challenger for the Democratic Party. In layperson’s terms, this amounts to voter protection. One must ensure that the law is upheld without actually speaking directly to voters. Rather, one issues gentle and respectful reminders to the precinct board if violations or distortions of the law occur and document irregularities.
I’ve never done anything like this before. No previous candidate during my voting life has inspired me sufficiently to donate fourteen hours of time I don’t really have. Like thousands of others, I found myself moved by Obama – his eloquence, his intelligence, his steady demeanor, his organizational genius, and, as he showed last night, a capacity for humility. As the race progressed, I also was repelled by the alternative – the hate speech, the intolerance, and the character attacks that pandered to the worst impulses and irrational fears of this society.
Nothing I’m saying is new or unique. However, the impulse to volunteer led to some surprising relevations.
1. I had assumed that my primary role would be to protect voters from partisan-based shenanigans – intimidation, harassment, deliberately erroneous claims that would discourage or prevent people from voting. In fact, very little of this occurred. Also no long lines and frayed nerves. Due to the availability of early voting in New Mexico, about half of the voters in the precinct had cast ballots prior to election day. Many more voted absentee. We processed fewer than 100 ballots over the course of 12 hours.
2. The main impediment was not partisan ill-will, but incompetence. The precinct board was an interesting mix – a young Hispanic woman who helpfully wiped down the voting booths with antiseptic wipes at regular intervals, a graduate student in Economics, an older woman who runs her own needlework and framing business, another older and very well-preserved woman who was a living testimony to the anti-aging nutritional supplements she sells, and a youthful and very funny lesbian in marketing. The Republican challenger was knowledgable, decent and a University accountant. And then there was the presiding judge, an elderly woman about which I know little other than her general cluelessness.
Of the cast of characters, the most knowledgable people in the room were me and the other challenger. This was alarming as we had no prior experience and had only a crash course and some handouts. Of the precinct board members, some were complete novices, others were not, all had good will, but few were well informed. The presiding judge was completely and utterly incompetent, not to mention unpleasant. She did not know how to set up or turn on the ballot processing machine or the auto-mark machine for the disabled. When asked about how she would handle the various types of ballots, she seemed confused. She demonstrated almost no knowledge of electoral law and made frequent mistakes. The low point of the day probably was when she was told she had to sign an envelope for a provisional ballot. She was instructed to turn the ballot over to find the signature line. Instead she rotated it 90 degrees. Then there was the time when she voided the forms for hand-tallied ballots without reading them first. She also failed to oversee what the precinct board was doing, for example, when one member repeatedly and incorrectly tried to tell voters that if they voted provisionally their “vote may or may not be counted.” I could go on. Little did I expect that much of the day would consist of overseeing the judge and trying to maintain an environment that would inspire voter confidence. Or that the Republican challenger would be my best and most supportive advocate.
3. Given this experience, my faith in the electoral system was shaken anew. One expects and anticipates that improperly calibrated machines or ill-intentioned individuals might subvert the system. But I now have to wonder how much electoral outcomes might be dictated by the fact that people might not know what they were doing. So while I signed on to support Obama, I am likely to work at the polls in the future because the eleectoral process is too important to be left to people who neither know nor seem to care about voter rights. I might even train to be a judge (no law degree trequired).
4. I did not expect to be emotionally touched by the voting process but I often was. Some moments stand out: a gentleman who assisted his son, who had Down’s Syndrome; a visually-impaired woman who was so moved to be voting that she cried; a guy we dubbed José the plumber; an elderly man covered with Rosary beads who kept blessing us (we later found out that he had to be removed by security for haranguing voters of the opposite party); a hippie couple that were in a hurry to vote because their daughter was about to deliver twins; and a lot of voters that said they had never voted before. Not all of them were young.
I left home before the sun rose and returned after it had set. I also had gotten no news during the course of the day. I would have liked to have gone to a party or something but not something one can do in good conscience after being away from the kids for fourteen hours. So I watched the returns come in and the speeches. Kudos to McCain for ending on a high note and showing a glimpse of the McCain he once was. I can’t say I’ll miss that creepy, insincere smile or Palin’s grating voice and twitchy body language. But I will miss getting those daily personalized emails from my buddies, Barack, Joe, Michele and Al.
And whoever stole my Obama yard sign last night could you please return it?
