Tuesday was
another voting day in Alabama, or at least in Madison County. I say voting day
rather than Election Day because the vote was for a special amendment rather
than to elect someone into office. Once again, I worked at my precinct and
believe me when I tell you, it was a long, long day.
The vote was
to combine the tax assessors and tax collector’s office and either not many
people knew about it or not many people cared because we only voted a total of 131
people, 96 of whom voted no. .
There were five
of us working and I was the last to arrive at 6:00 a.m. I guess everyone else
arrived a few minutes before 6:00. When I pulled up I kind of felt like a rebel
as everyone else was driving a white vehicle and I pulled up in a black one. Is
there a certain age you reach when a white car is required because it seems a
lot of older people drive white cars; maybe my Aunt Linda could let us know,
not that she’s older or anything, just wise. The precinct was set up on Monday
night so there really wasn’t too much to do when we arrived other than sign all
the papers and envelopes in preparation for the end of the day. Before we
opened my stomach felt kind of upset which concerned me; but thankfully that
passed quickly.
Surprisingly,
we had one guy arrive a few minutes before the polls opened at 7:00 a.m. Once
we opened up, he came in and cast his vote. After 10 minutes or so when we had
no one else coming in, I went ahead and voted second. By the time the first
hour had passed, we had voted a whopping 14 people. Like I said, it was a slow
day. Most of us brought things to work on or keep us otherwise occupied during
the slow periods. I brought my Kindle and played games and read and also
brought my computer to work on some blog posts and of course had my phone as well.
One lady brought her Christmas cards to address and another lady brought hers
to make (she makes homemade cards for Christmas every year) and another lady
brought a book to read.
I think I’ve
mentioned before that at my precinct location, Jackson Way Baptist Church,
there is a daycare and the lady that cooks for the daycare, and also for the
church, sometimes brings us pie or other goodies. This time when it came time
for lunch, she hooked us up with pinto beans and cornbread and coleslaw and
sweet tea. The lunch was quite good and very filling and made me want a big ole
nap afterwards.
The rest of
the afternoon was much of the same. A few people trickled in every now and then
and cast their lots and finally 7:00 p.m. came and we were able to shut things
down, wrap things up and head to our respective homes by 7:17. It was a long
and, to be honest, a boring day; but, once again I was able to have a front row
view of democracy and that is what I love most about this great country of
ours.
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