Primary election

Tuesday was the primary election in Montana.  I again worked as a chief election judge.  Tammy worked on my team as an election judge, her first election.  I also had two other new people on my team of six (including me).  I think Tammy enjoyed the day and the characters both in other judges and in the voters, even if quite a number of stretches of the day were slow and boring.

The day was long as we had to be at the the election site by 6 am to prepare to open the polls at 7 am.  That meant getting up by 4:30 am and feeding the cattle and leaving the house by 5:30 am to get there.  Tammy and I did some of the initial setup (for an hour) last night to take some of the pressure off this morning.

We had a few glitches with the voting and auto-mark machine setup but got them resolved in time to open the polls for voting. Overall the whole process during the day went well.

In contrast to the 2010 general election where we had a record number of voters (495), this election at 267 voters had for us the lowest amount of voters I and my experienced team members have seen.  It was so slow in the morning Ted and I were predicting a total of maybe only 150-175 voters.  In the afternoon the traffic picked up and after work more voters came.

Tammy suggested the election judges have potluck for lunch and supper and we all brought stuff with Tammy and I bringing two crock-pots.  One had shredded beef for lunch and then a Tastefully Simple Creamy garlic chicken with brown and wild rice.  Yum!  Everyone loved the meals.

After the election was over Tammy and I were delayed in leaving for a little bit when the two new judges left without signing the time sheets after writing their hours down.  We had to call them and get them to return to sign.

The weather was cool and threatened rain all day.  Finally an hour or two before the polls closed the rain started and fell steady.  The election department's headquarters is temporarily at the fairground and the parking is poor.  Fortunately we got a space close to the door to unload our supplies as it was still raining hard.

The wait to be checked in was longer than in 2010 and it took us almost 40 minutes to be checked in so we didn't get home until a quarter to eleven.  I then had to feed the cattle who had eaten most of the hay I had given them before I left in the morning.  With all the rain a good part of the corral has turned into part lake / part mud pit.

The cattle were dry in the loafing shed and were slow to come out.  Initially I pondered on waiting till morning to get a bale of hay from the barn into their feeder but as I deliberated the cattle came over in the rain and mud to me as if to tell me, "yes, I want hay tonight".   I got a bale out for them.

It is so wet here everyone is sick of it and wishing for drier weather.  That's not in the forecast anytime soon.