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election day is over
Jun. 3rd, 2008 10:17 pmand it went pretty well. except for the bit where i totally screwed up my job, of course.
see, when the polls close and you shut everything down, you are supposed to print 3 reports from the touchscreen (my personal responsibility). instead, i sort of...turned off the machine.
it's really particularly irritating because the one thing the instructor at the hands-on training cautioned me about was being too impatient, and trying to go too fast. so what did i do? i impatiently hit a button before i read the whole screen, because i was going too fast. *sigh*.
well, at least the people at the registrar didn't seem particularly put out. and no one had voted on the machine, which the memory card should document. still, i can't believe i did something so stupid. we'll see if they give me another chance in november - after this, i should certainly have no trouble remembering to be patient.
for the rest of it, it really was a pretty good day. the polling place was in a garage, owned by a nice family, with a very sweet (and enthusiastic) dog. (and apparently, a herb garden- the lady of the house asked if we'd like any oregano, since she was thinning it out - and came out with a huge bunch of it, a portion of which is now in my kitchen.) the poll workers were an interesting cross-section of people. the poll inspector was a 71-year-old Danish immigrant - quite chatty, but quite interesting. (and a bit of a character - both times i have seen her now, last night setting up the poll and all today working it, she was wearing a black mesh cowboy hat). the assistant inspector was a college student, home for the summer (and much appreciated, since she was able to figure out the cell phone). the clerk was a 60ish guy, also very chatty - a graphic artist who is a regular listener to art bell's radio show, with rather a similar range of interests - from european architecture to planet X theories on human evolution (which he seems to believe). well, the discussions kept the day lively.
we certainly weren't overworked, but we had a fair number of voters (plus a number of people turning in absentee ballots). so not a total wash, despite being the year's second primary. there does seem to be a lot of political energy this year, stemming from dissatisfaction with the current situation. as poll workers, we are supposed to be non-partisan, but of course the voters can say what they want...and even in a region where the republicans are still in the majority, the only comments on the administration were negative. and we got a higher percentage of democratic voters than we did in the june 2006 primary i worked. as expected, there were some critical comments on the fact that we offer 'i voted' stickers (and of course ballots) in 3 languages besides english - but when offered a choice of which language they wanted their "i voted" sticker in, they responded with good humor (and a couple of people even took non-english ones).
probably the worst part of the evening was driving to the drop-off location with the poll inspector...a nice lady, but she drives like the proverbial little old lady - rather slow, and kind of all over the road. but we made it there and back.
i took the tofutsi socks i had cast on to work on today, and got almost all the way through the cuffs - decent progress, but i'm certainly not setting any speed records. (of course, the fact i had to redo the row i started on at least 5 times because i couldn't get the count to come out right didn't help.) there was a package waiting for me when i got home - after my screw-up i figured the perfect end of the day would be for it to be my death socks - but it was an order from amazon.com. still haven't gotten the SIPs from my target, but since it took 10 days for her to get my socks, i really shouldn't expect to get hers before the end of this week. so for this evening at least, all i have to deal with are a couple of whiny cats who had to stay inside ALL DAY. all of it. inside. not outside. which is where they want to be. as they keep telling me. unfortunately for them (or maybe fortunately) i am now about half-way through my second rather large glass of wine, so i view their complaints good-naturedly (and with a total disinterest in moving to do anything about them).
WOOOOOOT! just checked the warrior directory - my latest would-be assassin is dead! and her assassin is in tasmania! admittedly, the socks may already be done and on their way to me...but if i don't have them by friday, i bet they are off to tasmania! i may live to knit on other socks yet!
...of course, since i've said that, i'll get them tomorrow....
see, when the polls close and you shut everything down, you are supposed to print 3 reports from the touchscreen (my personal responsibility). instead, i sort of...turned off the machine.
it's really particularly irritating because the one thing the instructor at the hands-on training cautioned me about was being too impatient, and trying to go too fast. so what did i do? i impatiently hit a button before i read the whole screen, because i was going too fast. *sigh*.
well, at least the people at the registrar didn't seem particularly put out. and no one had voted on the machine, which the memory card should document. still, i can't believe i did something so stupid. we'll see if they give me another chance in november - after this, i should certainly have no trouble remembering to be patient.
for the rest of it, it really was a pretty good day. the polling place was in a garage, owned by a nice family, with a very sweet (and enthusiastic) dog. (and apparently, a herb garden- the lady of the house asked if we'd like any oregano, since she was thinning it out - and came out with a huge bunch of it, a portion of which is now in my kitchen.) the poll workers were an interesting cross-section of people. the poll inspector was a 71-year-old Danish immigrant - quite chatty, but quite interesting. (and a bit of a character - both times i have seen her now, last night setting up the poll and all today working it, she was wearing a black mesh cowboy hat). the assistant inspector was a college student, home for the summer (and much appreciated, since she was able to figure out the cell phone). the clerk was a 60ish guy, also very chatty - a graphic artist who is a regular listener to art bell's radio show, with rather a similar range of interests - from european architecture to planet X theories on human evolution (which he seems to believe). well, the discussions kept the day lively.
we certainly weren't overworked, but we had a fair number of voters (plus a number of people turning in absentee ballots). so not a total wash, despite being the year's second primary. there does seem to be a lot of political energy this year, stemming from dissatisfaction with the current situation. as poll workers, we are supposed to be non-partisan, but of course the voters can say what they want...and even in a region where the republicans are still in the majority, the only comments on the administration were negative. and we got a higher percentage of democratic voters than we did in the june 2006 primary i worked. as expected, there were some critical comments on the fact that we offer 'i voted' stickers (and of course ballots) in 3 languages besides english - but when offered a choice of which language they wanted their "i voted" sticker in, they responded with good humor (and a couple of people even took non-english ones).
probably the worst part of the evening was driving to the drop-off location with the poll inspector...a nice lady, but she drives like the proverbial little old lady - rather slow, and kind of all over the road. but we made it there and back.
i took the tofutsi socks i had cast on to work on today, and got almost all the way through the cuffs - decent progress, but i'm certainly not setting any speed records. (of course, the fact i had to redo the row i started on at least 5 times because i couldn't get the count to come out right didn't help.) there was a package waiting for me when i got home - after my screw-up i figured the perfect end of the day would be for it to be my death socks - but it was an order from amazon.com. still haven't gotten the SIPs from my target, but since it took 10 days for her to get my socks, i really shouldn't expect to get hers before the end of this week. so for this evening at least, all i have to deal with are a couple of whiny cats who had to stay inside ALL DAY. all of it. inside. not outside. which is where they want to be. as they keep telling me. unfortunately for them (or maybe fortunately) i am now about half-way through my second rather large glass of wine, so i view their complaints good-naturedly (and with a total disinterest in moving to do anything about them).
WOOOOOOT! just checked the warrior directory - my latest would-be assassin is dead! and her assassin is in tasmania! admittedly, the socks may already be done and on their way to me...but if i don't have them by friday, i bet they are off to tasmania! i may live to knit on other socks yet!
...of course, since i've said that, i'll get them tomorrow....
