Tuesday, November 04, 2008

My Election Day Experience

I was a poll checker for the NH Democratic Party in my ward this afternoon. I figured in the polling place, away from any "electioneering", the tv and the internet was the sanest place for me to be. The turnout seemed very high. The majority of names on all the pages of the poll books I saw were checked off as having voted either in person or by absentee. There seemed to be as many new voters registering and voting as there were registered voters casting their ballots.
I voted at around 7:30 this morning, which seemed to be late enough to miss the early morning opening time rush. I was at the polls from about 2:45 pm to almost 7 pm. I was expecting to see a late afternoon rush, but I think it was busier from 3 to 5 than it was from 5 to 7. I think everyone was expecting to encounter long lines and decided to vote early. There weren't really any appreciable lines the entire time I was there. It got busy, but the polling place was run very efficiently. I liked being there. In future elections I think I'd like to work as a poll worker rather than a partisan participant. It was cool to see the wide variety of folks coming out to participate in our democracy.

2 comments:

Daphne said...

Congratulations Pam! You should be so proud to have really put your money where your mouth is, working for Obama.......pretty exciting

Pam said...

Thanks, Daphne. That's really sweet!
I didn't let myself believe it until the networks officially called it, but I am really hopeful that President Obama will be able to encourage the kind of teamwork and cooperation that made his campaign such a success and that we'll start cleaning up this mess we are in.