Election work

Another election.  Another long day as chief election judge for an election precinct.

Usually we have six election judges but after Tammy left we were down to five judges. Over the last month I had asked a few people if they were interested in being an election judge but got no takers.  The County found a person from a temp agency the end of last week but by then I decided the five of us could handle the election ourselves.  It was a mid-term election and and all of my team are experienced as we worked together for a few elections now.

We had no problem handling the election even with the two ballot styles.  Part of our precinct was voting on a fire district levy so some voters got a ballot with the extra levy question on it.

Ted and I picked up the election material the night before and discovered that the church had not provided a key for the outside door.  I called the pastor and he referred me to Rick, a church member in charge of keys and maintenance. Rick agreed to meet us Monday night at the church and give us an extra key.  Ted and I did some pre-setup after we got the key.

On election day all five of us judges met at the church by 6 am.  We had the setup complete by 7 am when the polls opened.  Our first voter was there right at 7 am.

After redistricting made our precinct smaller, and the slow primary, I was afraid the general election would be slow also.  But we had a steady turnout with only a few lulls.  We ended up with 257 voters.  A smaller amount than before redistricting but enough to keep us occupied.

Since Tammy wasn't there with one of her Tastefully Simple crock-pot meals, Terry provided BBQ chicken for a crock-pot meal.  The rest of us brought various items to eat or snack on.  We had plenty of food.  Terry and Ted brought extra Halloween candy and what we didn't eat we gave out to the kids accompanying their parents.

The polls closed at 8 pm.  We had the polling place torn down and packed shortly after 9 pm.  After Ted and I delivered the ballots and election results, etc. back to the election headquarters we were done.  I was home around 10 pm.

Daisy was happy I was home. She had been outside all day.  I left food and water outside for Daisy and she had eaten all her food by the time I returned home.

A long day.  I was asleep by midnight.