I was way too tired last night to write more than “I lived through it.”
The following is about voting and NOT about parties, votes, or politics. I can be sad when we don’t prioritize things the same way, but having the right to an individual opinion is overriding.
We set up at 0600 and had people ready and waiting to come in the door at 0700. Unlike the previous three days, there were quieter times but our station was never empty of voters. With the exception of one woman, we had no problems with anyone harassing those in line. This particular person was enough of an issue that the police came and had a discussion with her. She decided that departing rather than being arrested was better. But we saw no violence.
What did we see? Tons of students, since our line was significantly shorter than the one right next to campus. With Cal off for the day, the students had the time to hike the 1.5 km to us. We saw dogs: big dogs, little dogs, in-between dogs. Fuzzy and not, sociable and shy. But any that wanted petting certainly got a lot when their person approved.
We also saw a lot of the under 6 crowd coming in with parents. Our real challenges wound up being one of voter flow. Once it got busy, the touch screens wound up slower than paper ballots. (Hint, if you are doing a paper ballot, no one cares if you are sitting there on your phone researching issues. If you are tying up a touch screen for 30 minutes….)
I spent most of the day on my feet printing out paper ballots. and printing out ballots and more ballots. The documentation required is extensive.
The number of workers we had was adequate, provided everyone was working. When you start having multiple people on break it became a challenge. I might have mentioned last night that several of us took almost no breaks, just because it was difficult to walk out the door leaving both voters and colleagues with a mess that was only going to be worse when one returned. Mudraker’s – the small coffee shop on the corner of Stuart and Telegraph received a good amount of business from us.
Was it worth doing? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Probably. Would I want a less student driven location? It would make me more willing. Checking in registered voters is easy. Doing the Conditional and Provisional check-ins just takes more time. We had a lot of Juniors and Seniors who couldn’t vote four years ago.
The tear-down was a pain. Literally for me. All the polling booths come apart after the touch screens & printers have been packed away. Then there were all the voting booths with privacy screens which came apart. Computer equipment to pack up. Tables to disassemble, accountability checks. numbered zip ties, and on and on and on.
We did our absolute best. And there will be no political discussions of any kind after this. Instead, I will fill you in on the wall repair which is just about completed and the new roof/gutter/railing damage that occurred this morning from a combination of high winds and a rather larger redwood branch.
