Voting Day

To Ben- From Myles

               For many, the 2012 presidential voting day could not have come sooner, and the anticipation of who would be the next president was intense.  For some, having President Obama finish what he started of transforming the country into more of a collectivist society was critical for the future success of the country.  For others, stopping or even just slowing down the progressivism towards that change meant saving the world from absolute destruction.  It seemed to be an election that meant more than just choosing your party or the guy you thought would do the best job.  It was an election built around what we as a nation stood for and wanted for our countries foundation, our core beliefs, and the principles we wanted to be grounded to.  Due to the excitement and to give some service to something that Ben would appreciate, I decided to work the polling booth. 

               Living in Camarillo, there is not much diversity.  People are for the most part conservative and thus voted for Romney.  So there wasn’t much hazing, taunting, or propaganda outside the voting booth.  Everyone seemed to be on the same page.  Except for the father, who made a strong suggestion that his kids vote the “right way” as they walked into the booth.  I don’t know which way that was but it caused some excitement.  But, what was interesting to me about working the booth was learning the process and realizing how things could get heated had I been in a swing state. 

               For one, our restrictions of what we could ask for were great.  No ID was required and we could only ask for the persons address.  The weird thing was that I had the list right in front of me with nothing blinding the voter from looking down and reading what was on the page.  It just seemed odd, like it would not have been difficult to vote multiple times or get people who were not citizens to vote in proxy for non-voters.  Another thing that was crazy was when there was a woman who had a highlighted note next to her name that said, “Ask for Passport”, she had a tantrum.  The crazy thing about it was that after they calmed her down, they just allowed her to vote.  The last thing I noticed that was a bit odd was that there was a lady who had two last names due to something with her marriage and she could have voted twice.  Fortunately, she noticed the error and pointed it out.    

               Nonetheless, there were some positive things that I can’t go without saying.  One was the 2 citizens that had worked for years to become legal and this was their first time ever voting.  One of the people was working the booth with me.  Her glow as she went to the booth and placed her own ballot was bright and full of joy.  And the other person announced it as she gave her name to another poll worker.  She got applause by many as the spirit of freedom was felt. 

               It was great to get into the voting spirit this year, regardless of whether numb nuts won.  I’m glad I had the opportunity to serve the way Ben would appreciate.