Guest Blahgger (in honor of “Super Tuesday”)

Every Tuesday is Super Tuesday for me (did I just blahg this yesterday? Or not…) because I work all day and then go straight to class. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Or food. Or anything. Fortunately, I was smart enough to realize that I would probably not be able to keep my GPA if I took the class for credit AND began a new full-time job. So, last night, when the lecture ended at 8:10 or so, the teach said he would come around and work with the individual groups and Kate and I decided we were the Parking Lot Group. Aka, go home already. And you don’t wanna know about today, which was great until it took me an hour to get home. Ice storm turning to snow. Fun. I posted a few pics at the bottom of all this. Don’t worry. I had plenty of time to use my iPhone camera while I was sitting in traffic. You definitely don’t wanna know those details. It’s winter and this is Michigan and we are actually *getting* a winter for once. Yay!

Anywhoo. How’s that for a guest blahgger. My *real* guest blahgger is my ultra-smart “cuzzint” Pooh, who is a dedicated election volunteer in the great state of Missouri, St. Louis area. She left a comment about her day to my post yesterday and, in case y’all haven’t checked the comments yet, here is a snapshot of a day in the life of a poll volunteer:

Breakfast: A bowl of oatmeal at 4:15 am, plus a cup of coffee in my go-cup. Have to be at work at the polls at 5:00 am!
Lunch: A bottle of V8 Fruit and Vegie Fusion, pomegranate/blueberry flavor and a Clif Bar, at 1:30 or so.
Dinner: Tail end of deli sub sandwich, some vegie sticks, cheese cubes and a tangerine at 8:15 pm, when I got home from working the polls. Plus a square of Lindt Intense Orange Dark Chocolate. Mmmm, chocolate!

I had taken a huge amount of food to the polling place, some to share, and some for me. As you can see, I needn’t have bothered. Most of the day I wasn’t too hungry, and by the afternoon, when I was, it was too busy at the problem table to take a break. The Clif bar and juice were taken in small quantities whenever I had the chance.

All in all, though, it was a good experience. We were working a new polling site on the Washington University Campus, serving students living in the dorms. They were enthusiastic and came out even though there were thunderstorms and heavy rain most of the day. The other thing I like about student voters is that it was new to them, so even if I had to tell them they weren’t registered, they were good natured. I was a little concerned that I had several voters who said they had registered who were not in the system when I called. Some had registered at rallies, so you wondered who collected the registration forms and what happened to them. Some of the problems were due to the arcane nature of St. Louis political boundaries, with the City of St. Louis being its own county and the suburbs being St. Louis County. Wash U is right on the border, so students can easily move just a few blocks and cross into a new county. Missouri law does not allow for election-day registration at a new address in a different county, only if it is in the same county. And then there was the one who was registered in Texas and seem surprised when I said that he could not vote in Missouri!

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(You know the drill. Click to enlarge.)

7 Responses to “Guest Blahgger (in honor of “Super Tuesday”)”

  1. Webmomster Says:

    took me 2 hours to get home from Pontiac….. back roads only (if you can call the Dixie Highway “back roads”)…

  2. isa Says:

    i voted yesterday! yay! (never voted in person before).

  3. Sam Says:

    We dodged the worst—those storms north of us that were so destructive (another version of the snow storm that’re in China?)—meanwhile we dip into our ’tinis while we wait for the camillia blooms to open fully here in drought-stricken ATL…. Stay warm….

  4. Maquis Says:

    Anne/Pooh was not an election volunteer she was an election official. She was the Democratic precinct supervisor for a new precinct covering Washington University in St. Louis (actually Clayton, MO).

    OBTW, at 10 PM CST the AP declared MO for Clinton. By 2 AM they had recanted and declared for Obama. The excuse given for the mistake on NPR today was that the returns from the inner ring of St. Louis suburbs (including Clayton) were slow in coming in.

    Anne said that a large number of the students opted for the manual paper ballots over the touch screens. This would slow the count.

  5. Jay Says:

    We get to caucus on Saturday

  6. Pooh Says:

    Election official vs. volunteer means that we get paid for the day. (also for the half day of training.)

    Jay, how does Washington State handle absentee voters at caucuses? I’m thinking, of course, of your two lovely children, as well as military personnel, shut-ins, etc.

  7. Jay Says:

    If you are not there you do not get a voice. At least that is my understanding. We caucused last time and I do not recall any “absentee” proxys. We also have a primary on the 19th. But the Democrats are only taking delegates from the caucuses. The Republican Party is taking 1/2 from the caucuses and 1/2 from the primary. I asked the kids if they wanted me to make and statements for them.