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Poll Smoking with jere7my
Nov. 6th, 2006 02:32 amSomehow, I have agreed to be downtown at 9AM on Tuesday, and then to spend the day monitoring the democratic process (assuming I do not fall asleep all over the republic). I will be checking voters off as they vote, enabling neighborhood-roaming packs of democrats to knock on the doors of the unvoted and hustle them off to the polls. I will also be the sole bastion standing against the wave of fraud, corruption, and voter intimidation that will inexorably fall upon the 13th electoral district of Saratoga Springs. I'll watch for shady tactics, ensure the waiting in line doesn't get any longer than half an hour, insist that paper ballots be produced if the machines should fail—possibly repair the machines with my own bare hands if I see a single voter about to be disenfranchised! Raar, I say.
We had an orientation meeting tonight: about sixty of us packed into the smallish Democratic HQ, listening to lawyers, with another four or five on speakerphone (asking questions like they were the only ones there). There are Rules: I am not to speak Partisan Words (like "I hate elephants"). I must have the Official Form, signed by our candidate. I may bring a camera, but I should not Brandish it. If our checklists of voters are touched by the election officials, they immediately (this is true) become Property of the State and cannot be taken out of the building.
I am excited, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and otherwise squirrelly. We are being encouraged to make sure people vote; the Republican strategy, I am told, is to prevent people from voting. I'm glad to be on our side, and I plan to do my best to make the experience pleasant and sociable instead of tense and confrontational. Yay, democracy!
We had an orientation meeting tonight: about sixty of us packed into the smallish Democratic HQ, listening to lawyers, with another four or five on speakerphone (asking questions like they were the only ones there). There are Rules: I am not to speak Partisan Words (like "I hate elephants"). I must have the Official Form, signed by our candidate. I may bring a camera, but I should not Brandish it. If our checklists of voters are touched by the election officials, they immediately (this is true) become Property of the State and cannot be taken out of the building.
I am excited, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and otherwise squirrelly. We are being encouraged to make sure people vote; the Republican strategy, I am told, is to prevent people from voting. I'm glad to be on our side, and I plan to do my best to make the experience pleasant and sociable instead of tense and confrontational. Yay, democracy!
