Working Those Polls

Tuesday was the primary election run-off and it was quite possibly the most boring day of my life. Usually I don’t mind working the polls, for the most part there is a steady stream of people coming in; but, this past Tuesday was the slowest I think it has ever been. My precinct voted 55 people. Yes, you read that right. That’s an average of 4.6  people per hour that the polls were open.

We started the morning at 6:00 a.m. as always. I got up at my normal time of 5:00 a.m. and was ready to go by 5:45 a.m. I was having a craving for Dunkin’ Donuts Munchkins (aka donut holes) and so I sped to Dunkin and bought some and made it to the precinct at exactly 6:00 a.m.

We got the last minute things set up and took the oath of office and signed all the papers we needed to sign and at 7:00 a.m. we opened the polls. It was almost an hour before we saw our first voter. By the time we had voted 12 people, the old lady working the books where people sign in had already messed up by letting a voter slip out the door without signing. I don’t even understand how this can happen. It’s not like there were hundreds of people lined up waiting to sign in. The most voters we had come in at one time was three people. So, how do you miss something like this? It’s not difficult to pay attention. These people I work with at the polls, all they care about it talking amongst themselves and to the people who come in, not about doing the job right and it annoys me to no end.

The day was spent listening to all the other workers talk about healthcare, surgeries, doctors, insurance, the cost of going to a pro-sports event, mailboxes, and a lot of other mundane things. I think we discussed the fate of Mullins Restaurant at least 10 times. I just wanted to find a little corner and take a nap. It was such a boring day.

We closed the polls at 7:00 p.m. and thankfully I had staged everything for a quick close and wrapped up the paperwork and I was home by 7:15 p.m. where I finished watching Monday’s stage of the Tour. Tuesday was a rest day at the Tour so that worked out quite well for my TV watching schedule.

Anyway, I’m proud to be an American, and I love that we have the freedom to vote, it’s just that some days are a little more interesting than others and some days you just sit and watch the clock for 12 hours longing for quitting time. Unfortunately, this past Tuesday was the latter. Here’s to hoping the election in August will be much more eventful.