Tired but happy

So yesterday I was a poll worker, and it was a really good day.  I'm still groggy and tired, but I want to put something up while it's still fresh.

People started showing up about 6:30, by 7am (when the polls open), we must have had over a dozen people in line.  In the rain (yes, it _does_ sometimes rain in southern California).  But no complaints, and no problems. (Well,  a few with the markers smearing because the ballots got wet, but that's why we give people 3 shots at it).

The ballots are numbered, so we could easily tell how many we had handed out.  By about 9:15, it was 136 - so about 1/minute.  We stayed on that pace pretty much all morning.  It then gradually slowed down - we got occasional spurts, where things would fill up again, but then it would slack off, although there was pretty much always at least one person working on a ballot until the last hour or so.  We didn't get as much of a post-work rush as we thought - actually, the final peak was about 3-4pm, so I guess everyone was trying to avoid the post-work crush.  We had one lady run in about 5 minutes until 8, and that was that.

All together, we had something like 458 votes cast, and collected over 80 mail ballots, in a precinct with something over 700 registered voters.  A lot of the people who didn't come in were marked as having requested a mail ballot.  Various poll watchers who came by said we had one of the highest numbers of votes cast in the area they were checking, but it sounds like it was pretty high all around, which is really exciting.  It will be nice to see a decent turn-out for once.

And then when I got in the car, a little after 9pm, the radio was broadcasting Obama's speech.  Working in the polls, we can't listen to the radio or TV, and we aren't supposed to allow political talk, either among the board or the voters (too close to electioneering).  I was actually sort of happy about that - I don't think I could have handled the stress of early reports, projecting things going the wrong way.  That was the one drawback to the high turnout - I kept wondering whether that would mean the final results would be really different from the polls.  My main wish for the day was that I could go to bed knowing Obama had been elected - no long drawn out counts, no battles in the Supreme Court - just the assurance that change was at hand.  So needless to say, I slept really well last night (the 19 hour day and the bottle of bubbly I drank in celebration didn't hurt either).

Not everything was perfect, of course.  My carpetbagger Congressman seems to have kept his seat, Prop. 8 may pass - but 4 looks to be failing.  On the other hand, there are still a lot of mail/provisional ballots to be counted (according to the San Diego County website, about ~220,000, with about 1 million votes counted).  So the propositions could still go either way.

What else?  I decided it was a perfect occasion to wear my tricorn hat (hey - it's patriotic!  the founding fathers wore them!).  This turned out to be a really good idea - it got _cold_.  (do people in Really Cold Places vote in open garages?  It did at least stop raining after a couple of hours.)

One thing I love about being a poll worker.  You get these really grim-faced people coming in to vote, and then they turn in their ballot and and you give them their 'I voted' sticker - and 9 out of 10 (at least) break into this great smile.

I do love working a neighborhood poll.  People come walking from home, with their kids and dogs.  Couples come in together.  Parents check to see if their children have been in to vote yet.  The precinct inspector has been working that precinct for years, and the other clerk was from the neighborhood, so they were greeting old friends, and all kinds of people were catching up with each other (I even saw the guy who taught my swim conditioning class at the Y years ago - now married with a kid).

Even the cats seemed to be excited by the election - they spent the evening charging around like lunatics.  Can I suggest they were happy to hear a black cat would be in charge of the country?  (don't hurt me, it was Bill Maher's joke).  Of course, a black cat is still in charge of the household...she decided I should get up at six to let her out, since she had to stay in _all_ _day_ yesterday.  (I didn't, but I didn't get any sleep after 6 either). 

Feel like there's more I should say, but I've just spend about 5 minutes staring blankly at the screen, so that will have to do.  I was going to take a picture of my much-faded "Impeach Bush and Cheney" bracelet, off my wrist now for the first time (barring poll work) in over a year.  I doubt a new administration will give me the satisfaction of seeing the old one get the punishment it deserves;  I know it will have its hands full just handling the worst of the damage;  I know we won't have all the things we need and have worked for in the next 4 years - but it is so good to think we finally have someone who will at least try to take us in the right direction.

i've got to record our obama set

i swim with a group of other people 3 days a week.  tonight there were 3 of us, and we decided we needed to come up with an obama set, in honor of the election.

now, i am the slowest of the three, F. is the fastest and L. is in the middle.  we started with a graduated fast tax.  as the lowest-speed individual, i started first.  the high speed individual, F., had to give up 10 seconds/50 yards, while the middle speed gave up 5 seconds/50 yards.  so in a 100 yard set, i started first, L. had to wait 10 seconds to start and F. waited 20 seconds.  the intent was that  we would all finish up about the same time.  however, incentivized by the time provided to me by the higher speed groups, i was able to produce a greater turn of speed, thus stimulating the others to a similar increase in speed production, resulting in better times for us all.  it is true that my history of lower speed still limited me;  i suffered differentially from long-term oxygen deficits, and was slowed in one set by decaying infrastructure (my cap started to come off).  still, it is clear that leveling the playing field in this way produced improved times for all, whereas the existing free-market speed regime brought the greatest speed benefits to the fastest while discouraging and thus actually further slowing the slowest (me), resulting in ever-increasing speed disparities.

after this set, L. had to leave and F. and i tried a different spread-the-speed program (he swam sets of 200 yds while i swam 150 in the same time);  again, this produced a more even speed benefit to all swimmers.  we ended with an im (celebrating stroke diversity).

i must say, i find this change in swim regimes inspires me to hope for the future.  i must review obama's policies with an eye to further exercise benefits.