What I Saw at the Polls
I live on the outskirts of a small village with mostly farm livestock
as neighbors. I like it that way. Working as an election worker at the polls
was a chance to be among human neighbors.
And I will say this right out front – they were nice people and it was a
good experience working alongside them. If
you know about “working the polls,” you understand that I sat side by side with
people who are declared officially to be the opposite political party as myself. That is done on purpose: to keep the work honest. Among us as workers, I think we had a
positive day. No one hurt anyone’s
feelings. No one raised a voice in
argument. No one got contentious.
So when it comes to the national concern – a very grave one –
with fraudulent voting practices I am just as alarmed by that as anyone. I think cheating is a lousy way to win, but
it is a truism to state that not everyone feels that way. And frankly it makes me sick to my stomach to
think that people would do something to tamper with the integrity of the
process.
But. It also should
not be left unsaid that some people should not vote. I witnessed two cases. I did not view this in a vacuum, my
opposite-party colleague also saw it. I
saw this with my own two eyes. I want to
share it with you incase you don’t believe it is possible. My right hand on the Bible, this actually
happened as I tell it to you:
Case #1.
Perhaps she was in her 30’s.
She was in the company of two other young people who shared the same
address. None of them had the same last
name. The other two were anglo she was
not. She was some sort of Asian. I know “my Asians,” having friends who are of
Eastern descent, and she was none of these:
not Chinese, not Japanese, not Taiwanese, not Korean, not Philippino. Perhaps Bhutanese? But she seemed a bit tall for that group of
people. None of that matters, welcome to
America to all people; however – it did not appear that she spoke English. And, again, welcome to America people of all
and many languages…. Except you need to know what the hell you are reading on
the ballot in order for your vote to be a meaningful exercise in
citizenship.
So my election-worker-partner asked her if she ever voted
before. She did not say no. She shook her head no. He simply offered that you take the sharpie
pen and fill in the circle next to the name of the person for whom you are
voting. We handed her the blank ballot,
the sharpie, and sent her off to the polling privacy station to do her part. She cast her ballot and the machine rejected
it as spoiled. Apparently, she had
filled in ALL THE CIRCLES.
My partner took a second shot at explaining how to
vote. “You read down the columns. You pick one person in each column (insert
index finger here, signifying ONE), you fill in the black dots. She returned to her station and then to the
machine and cast a second spoiled ballot.
(We don’t look at your ballot choices by the way.) Her friend was now standing by her side and
said, “I will go help her.”
So for the third time she took a clean ballot and proceeded
to the polling privacy booth. My
colleague and I logged the second spoiled ballot and watched from a distance as
the two women stood next to each other and the one told the other – it appeared
– which circles to fill in.
Now I ask you: If my
alphabet looks like ABCDEF…. And your alphabet looks like Stick-figure-running-house-firecracker-
upside-down-tree, how are you going to know which man’s name is who? I don’t think she spoke English. I think she understood some
limited English, but for my money, whomever her friend was that assisted
her really got the chance to vote twice…. And that is not fair.
Case #2
A young woman approached our table to get her ballot. I recognized her, since I had taught teens at
a church for a few years. She had been a
high school student over a decade ago.
She did not recognize or acknowledge me.
My impression of her from back in those days was she didn’t show up to
class to often but seemed very timid.
Even at this voting experience something seemed, well, “off.”
She went to the privacy station and with her back to those
of us who were easily 20 feet away or more she began gesticulating wildly at
the ballot before her. She threw her
hands up in the air a few times. She
sighed. She groaned aloud. She pointed her finger from one spot to the
other many times all over the ballot without bringing the sharpie down to mark
a circle. I poked my colleague on the
arm. I said to him, “I knew her over a
decade ago in passing. I do not know if she
is unstable or if she can’t read but something is truly wrong there.”
Then I felt like I was going to choke. I touched his arm again. I asked him, “do you see what she is doing?” Her hand was pointing on the far-left side of
the ballot up and down, up and down, between the two choices. She was doing “Eenie-meenie-miney-moe” to make
her choice.
THAT is a TRAVESTY of the process. She finished her antics, went to the machine
and cast her vote. It was accepted as a
legitimate ballot and she walked out the door.
So wrong. So very, very wrong. Perhaps even sacrilegious. When you
consider that the fate of millions of people, the economy, world peace, and
other huge human interests depends on the integrity and capability of the
person we put in Office, there should be no room for people of incomprehensible
behavior to make a mockery out of the whole process. You may say, well, rules say nothing about
the behavior of the voters. Perhaps. BUT, if she is a certifiable lunatic, her ability
to make a valid, semi-well-considered choice on a ballot is more than
compromised. Or did we send ballots to asylums
to get those dear people to weigh-in as well?
Throughout the day we had many conversations. This is not the job for an introvert – since the
shift is SIXTEEN HOURS long. It was an
endurance test the year I did this in a community that was very, shall we say,
non-welcoming to new comers? This year
was more fun. We had two people there
who are super-extroverts and they were entertaining. When we got to 8 pm and the room was empty of
voters, and we were starting to fade, they regaled us with stories and
joking. That was a gift.
Throughout the day one person shared with me she heard of a
household that received THREE ballots in the mail, and only one person who
lived there was registered to vote.
Additionally, a ballot was mailed to a dead woman. It made me harken back to childhood days…. My
father was a rural route letter carrier (aka: mailman). I loved mail.
I would come home from school and go to the kitchen counter to see what
envelopes were lying there. “Dad! Can I open this envelope?” He asked a rhetorical question: “Whose NAME is on it?” (not mine.)
followed by: “It is a federal
offense to open someone else’s mail.” All
things considered, put me on record as saying:
Only a jackass – by any definition of that word – could think that
mail-in ballots were not a BIG, HUGE DISASTER IN THE MAKING. Or maybe that was someone’s intent all along.
Where I live, Trump signs out number Biden signs on front
lawns in both size and quantity. I find
it curious that Biden did not really campaign.
He made an absolute joke of the first debate. As I stated elsewhere before, with his
smirking, refusal to answer questions, and general evasive attitude it made me
think of how growing up if we made THAT face to my father he would have most
assuredly said: “Wipe that bleeping bleeping
smile off your face, before I wipe it off for you!” It may not be appropriate soft-approach
parenting of the 3rd Millenium but it taught us respect…. Something that
Mr. Biden did not display.
I also find it curious that no Biden parades (just riots),
no rallies, masked-or-otherwise, and generally the zealous output of a fart in
the wind from his supporters. And Nancy
Pelosi stated PRIOR to the election that they had already won. I am not sure if someone thinks we are voting
in mute sages and omniscient prophets or what.
Then the celebrating and claiming of victory before a concession speech
from the current sitting president…. The slurring of him ever-so-disrespectfully
on CNN yesterday. The whole process has
been marred by disrespect. Shame on those who are involved!
They say it aint over till the fat lady sings. Well, I haven’t sung in a while, and
unfortunately by medical definition, the other descriptor applies to me. You won’t hear me singing until the Supreme
Court hears the cases regarding fraudulent voting allegations. And to the mailman in Pennsylvania who
changed the dates of the ballots, if you don’t fear the Federal Government, you
should fear the ghosts of all letter carriers who have gone on before you …. Listen
for their footsteps in the night …. As they haunt you for your treason. May every dog in Philly pee on your mailbox.
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