Usually I end up dozing another 20 or 30 minutes after my alarm goes off, but this morning, I rolled out of bed, hopeful about how this day might end. I'm writing this around 11 am CST, from a pretty busy reference desk where I can hear the sounds of a buzzing electorate wafting up from the first floor, where staff are trying to make voting as easy as possible. I'll catch up on my morning so far, and update throughout the day.
*****
1:08 pm Wow! It's been really busy and I've not had a chance to do much besides give excellent reference! The huge lines anticipated have not yet materialized, but there's been a steady stream of voters. I'll be heading downstairs to help with registration after lunch. I've heard from coworkers that there have been more instances of "what do we do about this situation?" than when we served as general registrars. Luckily, we're just sidekicks and have help from the pros at the City Clerk's office.
*****
Buzzed
7:30 am After I dropped the girls off at school, I stopped to take pictures of high school students who were campaigning on all four corners of a busy intersection and getting lots of honks and waves. The two students I talked to were not old enough to vote, but were excited about helping out in any way they could. I was pretty wound up before I talked to them, but was filled with such an intense jumble of emotions as I talked to then, that I was worried I'd start bawling right there. So, I took the middle-aged dork route and high-fived both students and thanked them for what they were doing. But, you know? In their own jubilance, they returned the high-fives without eye-rolling or irony.
Relieved
7:35 I drove past my polling place and saw people lined up out the door, and was glad I voted early.
Giddy
7:40 I stopped by Bean Juice, my coffee place, and saw that my barista had on an "I voted today" sticker. When I asked if I could take her picture, she beamed and said yes. After I snapped her photo, she exclaimed "High five!" and we had an awesomely giddy moment which prompted other customers to share their experiences of the morning.
Pensive
7:50 La Crosse Democratic and Obama HQ. I stopped by the HQ to pick up a crockpot and a dish (I cooked for volunteers Sunday--Obamacue!) and asked if I could take some pictures. The HQ resides in a couple different storefronts downtown. There weren't a lot of folks around, and I didn't find the energy I'd expected. But, these were folks who have been living the campaign for the past few months and are probably looking at today from a different point of view than most of us. I wandered around, took some pictures, got some fabulous Obama schwag and offered to help clean up and close down the office later this week.
Surprised
8:20 I arrived at work and was surprised that the parking lot wasn't full. The library is a polling place and we planned as if there would be super long lines. There were greeters at both entrances and lots of welcoming helpful faces waiting to help. When I peeked into the polling area, there were maybe 15 people.
Busy
9-1 I worked the reference desk all morning. I thought that our regulars might stay away since we were a polling place, and that it would be a relatively quiet day, but the desk was seriously hopping. In addition to the usual stuff, a lot of folks were calling to find out how and where to vote. So many people assumed they can vote anywhere, so we've been doing a lot of voter education. I didn't even have time to check news sites until late in my shift. Glad to see an absence of sensational or catastrophic headlines so far. The school nurse called to say that Miss 17 was in her office and not feeling well. She had money on her, so I told nurse to let her take the bus home. I'm hoping she's not really sick--have been looking forward to watching returns with her tonight.
Catching my breath
1-2 I've been in my office, eating leftover Obamacue (Carolina Pulled Pork), and wondering what my 3-4 hour voter registration shift will bring. My giddy is gone for now, which is probably a good thing for a Deputy Registrar. Heading down now.
8:10 pm Wow. I put in about 4 1/2 hours registering voters. When I left around 6:30, we had registered around 900 people. While we never had huge lines out the door, there weren't more than 3 or 4 lulls of a couple minutes where there wasn't anyone. I didn't have much time to reflect or process--I just kept processing registrations. I'm guessing that 60-75% of the people we registered were college student and there were a notable number of young black voters (for WI, that is). I'm still decompressing after an intense day working with the public and just want to focus on returns. I'll finish my recap tomorrow.
Bottom line: It's been a remarkable day so far, and I'm daring to predict that it will get even more remarkable before day's end.
