Today's secret word: Vote *aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!*
I woke up at 0430, and was all set to take the scooter to the polling place. Mother Nature had decided to play a ripe prank on us, hefting a goodly portion of the Pacific Ocean over our heads sometime during the night. I hunted around for an umbrella, then decided to chuck the thought of two-wheeling on the oil-slick streets, instead stealing kittycat's Saab.
I got to the polling place at 0600, and I was the first of three people there to vote. There was one very frazzled woman, 8 high school students, and a small Japanese woman who appeared to be Yoda's grandmother. Nobody had any clue what to do, so me and the Pakistani guy pitched in to help. We setup the tables, connected the electronic machines, sorted out the paperwork, and hung the flag. Yoda's grandma disappeared with a roll of tape and a bunch of signs for about 20 minutes. The lady running the site asked if we'd signed in, and we told her that we were just here to vote. Fifteen minutes to go, and the rest of the site was completely disorganised.
Then another woman, who looked like an artist's rendering of a human Miss Piggy arrived, and she seemed to know what needed to be set up. Finally, everything was in place, and at 0700, the polls opened.
I got to be the one to verify the audit tape on the data collector machine, that everything was set at zero for the opening, and affirm that the ballot box was empty, signing a little card as the witness.
The first of us got to vote a few minutes later, after the high schoolers figured out how to use a pencil and a ruler to find names on a page, and then realising that they were looking up people in the wrong district books. (our polling place services 2 districts)
After all that, I got back home around 0730, began drinking and arranging cars in front of the house to make a defence perimiter.
addendum: after 5 or 6 glasses of "Scotch" (that's what it sez on the bottle), rule 34 fanfic of Keith Olbermann and Bill O'reilly doesn't bend your brain that much.
I got to the polling place at 0600, and I was the first of three people there to vote. There was one very frazzled woman, 8 high school students, and a small Japanese woman who appeared to be Yoda's grandmother. Nobody had any clue what to do, so me and the Pakistani guy pitched in to help. We setup the tables, connected the electronic machines, sorted out the paperwork, and hung the flag. Yoda's grandma disappeared with a roll of tape and a bunch of signs for about 20 minutes. The lady running the site asked if we'd signed in, and we told her that we were just here to vote. Fifteen minutes to go, and the rest of the site was completely disorganised.
Then another woman, who looked like an artist's rendering of a human Miss Piggy arrived, and she seemed to know what needed to be set up. Finally, everything was in place, and at 0700, the polls opened.
I got to be the one to verify the audit tape on the data collector machine, that everything was set at zero for the opening, and affirm that the ballot box was empty, signing a little card as the witness.
The first of us got to vote a few minutes later, after the high schoolers figured out how to use a pencil and a ruler to find names on a page, and then realising that they were looking up people in the wrong district books. (our polling place services 2 districts)
After all that, I got back home around 0730, began drinking and arranging cars in front of the house to make a defence perimiter.
addendum: after 5 or 6 glasses of "Scotch" (that's what it sez on the bottle), rule 34 fanfic of Keith Olbermann and Bill O'reilly doesn't bend your brain that much.