obligatory morning after post

hey kids
so I'm not going to post anything that has already been or is being said about the presidency and etc etc. I'm just going to go over yesterday. a day in the life of working the polls!..and that's POLLS not POLES. people who work the poles dance naked and get money thrown at them. kinda like politcians. we dance when our numbers add up every hour. it's pretty hot.
So yeah. as a chief officer of election it was an intersting day. me being awake and coherent at 3:30 am will always start off as an interesting day, to say the least. There was so much media buzz, I wasn't sure what to expect b/c well the media tells as much truth as a guy you meet at a bar.
Some quick background: been an officer of election for 4 years nows. my first election was 4 years ago as a regular ol' OE. and I was promoted through the ranks over the years and have been chief now for about 2 years. I wasn't a poli-sci major, but I've always been a civic dork, and I had some awesome role models like my fraternal grandparents working as OEs and my mom being not only an OE, but prez of her chapter of the league of women voters. the COE is a paid positon, but I would gladly do it for free. I have some amazing coworkers. Not just the fellow OEs in my precint, but the regsistar, his assistant and the electoral board. The city I work in is wicked small compared to the surrounding regions. we only have about 15,500 registerd voters, as opposed to say arlington with about, 300,000.
So considering I was living off of less than 6 hours of sleep- I didn't get to sleep till close to 10 PM and I woke up at 3:30 am. why did I go to bed so late? b/c I deceided to make cookies at oooh 8:45 at night. smart, I know. and well, my smoke alarm kept going off and I had to beat it with a broom in order to get it to stop. b/c that's how you get things to stop- beat it with a broom. just like my italian ancestors did.
Anyhoo.
So lemme do some Q and A to break it down:
Q: How long were the lines?
A: the longest we had were about 90 minutes. and after noon, the longest lines we had were about 10 minutes. ya know how the naacp and douglas wilder wanted to extend polling hours an extra 2-3 hours? yeah, well, from 5-7 we had 71 ppl vote. the police showed up at 7 ready to barricade the doors and work crowd control. now, I wouldn't mind these handsome officers using their hand cuffs on me...but here was not a soul in the precint at 7 PM.

Q: what was your turnout?
A: In person we had about 1373 out of a possible mm 2000. about 16% voted absentee (of a possible 2300 in our precinct).

Q: What was a highlight of the day?
A: Ooh so many. the red bull girls showing up right around the time I would normally hit the wall was like a sign from God. they should have been wearing wings- angels wings- instead of can shaped backpacks b/c these gals were heaven sent. Plus the overall good feel of it all. first time voters, returning voters. longtime voters who are like family. corny cheesy whatevs.

Q: Are there any side effects from working the long day?
A: well aside from gaining about 5 lbs from all the freaking amazing baked goods- holy crap my OEs could kick betty crockers ass!

Q: what was the most disapointing part of the day?
A: not being allowed to have the voter use the zoom ballot b/c it turns it into a butterfly ballot which makes it illegal- so we had soem old school magnifyer glass. AND not getting out in time to snag my free cup of coffee from starbucks, doughnut from krispy kreme, scoop of icecream from ben and jeryrs and I was also hearing rumors of burritos at chipotle! as the day grew on more rumors amounted. soon, they were giving away free babies at the hospital with the display of an "I voted" sticker. anyone pick up a bambino with you burrito?

Q: Any snafu's?
A: eh, yeah, but the risidual effect is minimal. everything has been taken care of, so it's all good.
I would talk about them, but it involes me typing more and using insider jargon and then typing more to explain what it all means. so let's just leave it at : it's all good.

Q:.so...what are soem perks? aside from that warm fuzzy feeling of doign your civc duty and your coworkers amazing baked goods (is that a euphanism?)
A: being a part of a somethign where in other countries peopel do not have the right, my coworekrs are amazing, inlcuding our registar who is. i ebliev the youngest in the commonwealth of virginia. it's just an overall awesoemness. I encourage all folks to participate if you can.

Q: Is it true that after one particuar proffesor told the whole calss to vote on tuesday and to make a difference and just came back from a gallery show opening which featured works from your class reacting to political events in the newspaper that she railed into you and gave you shit for working on tuesday and for missing class and couldn't understand why you couldn't leave for a few hours to attend class, even after you told her that it was illegal to leave b/c you're friggin chief.
A: yes, that is all true. apparantly she felt missing class was a horrible, irresponsible thing. I should have left my post and attended a lesson and demo on tempura paint and collage...b/c ya know, that's more important than manning a staff of 12 and making sure the votes of 2300 ppl are brought forth correctly. she can miss class for a religious holiday. but i guess b/c the presidnet is not a diety, I am not excused. ahh. the world of academia. what a lovely bubble it lives in.


I personally believe there should have been a ballott measure that says it is illegal to display christmas merchandise in stores before halloween. who the hell buys xmas deco before halloween?

And what am I doing to celebrate the end of this much anticipated event?... I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!! seriously. I am. my family is heading down to the sunshine state for a long weekend to celebrate my mom's 60th b day.

oh and btw...it's a boy! well it will be. well ok it already is, er. ok my sister will have a baby boy on saint pat's day!