|
Well, you haven't heard from me in quite
a while. It's been an interesting week, to say the
least. We returned early Monday morning from our trip
to Phoenix and began to get ready for our duties at the
election precinct on Tuesday. I also spent some time
on Monday afternoon placing some signs from my candidate,
Governor George W. Bush
On Tuesday I worked as an assistant
judge of elections at our precinct. I arrived at the
polling place promptly at six am, ready for a long
day. Our polls are open from 6:30 am until 7:30 pm and
we started the day with a waiting line of about 10 minutes,
which dissipated after about two hours.
As an assistant judge I mainly
relieved other positions and kept the line at the voting
booths flowing. I also assisted voters who didn't know
how the voting mechanism worked and facilitated the curbside
voting for handicapped residents and ran a few errands for
the chief judge. It was a long day, but it flowed
pretty well. There was a small lull in the afternoon,
but about the time people were getting off from work, the
action picked back up. By the time we closed the poll
at 7:30 pm there was no one waiting to vote.
After closing the poll the first order
of business was to disassemble the voting booths. Then
the chief judge opened the ballot counter and the machine
started its tally. I got an early indication of how
the evening might go as our precinct came in heavily for Al
Gore and the entire democratic ticket. I was mildly
surprised. This neighborhood is mostly middle class
and I had suspected it to vote for George Bush, but in the
end, he wasn't even in the running at Forsyth County's precinct
904. [Here are the results
from our precinct].
But, then I began to think back about
what I had seen during the day. There was a heavy
democratic turnout and in most cases the party had placed in
these voters hands, just before they entered the precinct, a
card with voting guidance. The card strongly suggested
they vote for Al Gore, a straight democratic ticket and yes
on the various bond referendums. Everything suggested
on this card passed with flying colors.
As I remember back on this day I was
struck by the number of people who were voting for the first
time, and I'm not talking about 18 year olds. I also noticed
how the seniors took this privilege of voting so much more
seriously, probably because maybe many of them or their
husbands had gone to war to protect this freedom.
After the evening's activity I headed
over to the Republican party's gathering to watch the
election returns from across the country. I had
expected this to be a joyous celebration, but as I entered
the room, the mood was rather somber. Our candidate
was not faring very well. I stayed there for a few
hours before heading home where I continued to watch the
election returns until 5 am before finally dragging myself
to bed. During the course of this evening I got to
watch the television networks declare Gore the winner in
Florida, retract that declaration, then declare Bush the
winner and finally take that declaration back as well.
We even heard that Al Gore had gotten into act, calling Bush
to concede and then calling back to retract that
concession. It was an interesting night.
And now for the last several days
we have had to endure the rhetoric coming from Florida.
I don't blame those on the losing side
for wanting the votes recounted in such a tight election,
but what I don't agree with is the crying of wolf from Palm
Beach county, claiming, after the fact, they made a
mistake. The time to fix a mistake was on election day
before you deposited you ballot in the box. Once that
ballot leaves your hand, you have completed your patriotic
duty and can't go back and change things. Case in
point. In my job on Tuesday at the poll, several
people called me over to the voting both and said they had
made a mistake. Their mistake was simple to fix.
We took their ballot, voided it and gave them a new one,
allowing the voting process to start over. As a side
note, from what I have seen on TV it looks like we use the
same equipment as the polls from Florida that have been so prominently
featured the last couple of days.
I have no patience for what is going
on in Florida. It's making a mockery out of our
democratic process and other friends from around the world
must be getting quite the chuckle at our expense.
Unfortunately, it's not a laughing matter.
And the thought that we should allow
some of the people, who claim they didn't pay close enough attention
to the ballot the first time around, to vote over is
absurd. But, knowing our court system, I'd bet they'll
be heading back to the voting booth.
It's ashamed some are taking the
typical American way of settling a dispute...heading for the
courthouse. I hope the judges in Florida do the right
thing and say we are NOT hearing this case. The people
had a chance to vote and they blew it. Lesson
learned. Pay attention next time. But I don't
have any confidence this will be the outcome.
There is no way we can allow one
little precinct in South Florida's Gold Coast decide who is
going to be President of the United States.
The unfortunate thing is, no matter
who the eventual victor is, his presidency will always be
clouded. He'll be going into office knowing he faces a
divided America and that gridlock in the halls of Congress
will be worse than five o'clock in Manhattan.
Do I have the answer? No.
But I will submit that allowing one precinct to revote is
NOT the answer. If such a move as this goes forward,
it'll be opening a huge can of worms all across this
country. In other words, all hell is liable to break
loose and votes in every corner of this country will start
to be contested.
I'm climbing down off my soapbox
now. Thanks for allowing me a little latitude.
Of course I had lots to clean out
of my mailbox when I finally got back to the PC.
|
