Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Election Day Wrap-Up

Each time our family pulls out of the driveway, I send out a little alert/reminder about where we are going.

Yesterday was no different.

As we backed out, I said, "And we're off to the polls!"

Cuckoo immediately got excited about going swimming.

For the ten minutes it took to get to the library and our voting location, we endured a conversation all about when did they build a pool at the library? and you make pools with blue! and I like to go swimming but not with my head under.

After seeing the results, I wish more Democrats would have gone to the pools. 

That's all I have to say about that.

Now that the election is over and the winners have been dubbed, I would like to put a few more things to a vote. 

For example, what would your vote for "Most Garish, Unnecessary Graph Used to Give Voting Results" be?  I would have to say that lighting up the Empire State Building has to be in the running.  I'm going to go out on a limb and say that John Jakob Raskob did not have that use in mind when he came up with the idea to build the world's tallest building.

I'm thinking Florida would have a landslide win in the "State That Shouldn't Be Allowed to Vote" category.  We thought that the hanging chads fiasco would have jump-started them to get their act together, but we were wrong.  They were having trouble with people not signing their ballots.   I actually laughed when one analyst called them the long-standing problem child.

We don't even need to have a vote for "Most Impressive Procrastinators".  The folks waiting in line to register to vote on Election Day can run for that uncontested.   I want to ask them what happened yesterday that didn't happen in the last 18 months of political ads, speeches, fliers, calls, and polls to get them off the couch in order to get that errand done. 

And for "Graphics Team With Too Many People and/or Too Much Time" my vote goes to CNN's Election Night in America.  All night long I was shouting at them, "Too much!  Too much!"  The poll closing countdowns, the hypothetical models, the red-lighted "Ballot Cam", the balance of power graphics, the major projection song and dance.  Oh, and the innumerable touch screens.  Have mercy.  Really, CNN.  Have.  Mercy.  We get it.  You are technologically savvy.  You have cool toys.  You don't need to use them all at once. 

What about the best way for a reporter to let us know that everything they are about to say is completely made up and they are really just blowing smoke?  In the running:

"Less than five percent of votes have been counted, so let's not jump to conclusions, but ..."

"It's still early, and the polls haven't even closed yet, but..."

"These are just exit polls and don't necessarily reflect actual results."

I'd have a tough time deciding where to cast my vote on that one.

We have a last minute addition to our ballots. I wasn't expecting to have "Person Most in Need of Sending a Thank You Card to a Teacher" category. A reporter was beaming with pride when he said, "See these pencil marks? I don't have a calculator. I did the calculations by hand!" His fifth grade math teacher deserves some credit for that one. 

Fortunately, news shows don't tell the real story of our election process.  You know what does?  The long lines of people waiting to cast their votes.

Despite the long line in the chilly fall weather at our polling place, not one person was grumpy. Not one person seemed to mind the wait. People were passing the time playing games on their phones. Or chatting with their neighbors. There were smiles, not frowns.

In fact, it was very much like a line of people waiting to get on a roller coaster, except the tattoos and skimpy clothes were covered up by layers of warm clothing.

It wasn't anything like standing in line at the grocery store, where people huff, sigh, and complain.

Seeing the number of people who took their right to vote seriously, and didn't mind waiting in line to do so, made me proud of our country.

So I almost cried.

Because I'm a sap.

And those people in Virginia waiting for up to FOUR HOURS to vote.  They deserve the "Dedicated to Democracy" vote. 

Even if I don't like the way they voted.

OK, that's really all I have to say about that.

Have a lovely day!

16 comments:

  1. Our local election coverage was horrid. The reporters could barely read their notes and they were actually yelling across the studio at each other on live TV. And people wonder why others think North Cackalacky doesn't have indoor plumbing. It's because of idiots like that on the news!!!!!

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    1. And here I thought reporters were the smartest, coolest folks under pressure. OK, no I didn't. I would never judge your state by its newscasters. Plenty of other things to work with :)

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  2. How about 'largest amount of taxpayer dollars spent to beat the other guy'? That said, at least the literature (propaganda?) you get is comprehensive. Over here we hardly know what's going on without dedicated research into party viewpoints and any literature just slates the other guy without really saying why they're any better.

    Vive la revolution! Let's put people in charge who want to make things better, not just beat the other lot.

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    1. Oh, don't get me started on the amount of money wasted on campaigns. I just get angry. Millions and millions spent to make someone else look bad. The things that could be done with that money...

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  3. This is awesome! I needed a little humor to balance out my frustrations today! Between all of the over-kill techo reporting, the millions of dollars wasted on campaigns and parties and the obvious disappointment of the outcome, I'm ready to crawl into a cave to recover!

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  4. What about the candidate that killed the most trees?? 7+ ads a day we were getting! Sad at the outcome, but really glad to move on and stop the junk mail. :)

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    1. Plenty of tree-killing going on, for sure. Luckily, there wasn't much in the way of fliers at our house. Now that the election is over, I can finally watch the news again.

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  5. Sad to say I missed all the media hype. But I was afraid Fl would do something stupid again. Sheesh you't think we'd be so embarrassed that we would try extra hard to get it right the first time... Yeah we're that state. Now promptly forget that I said that! And for the record I had no problems voting. I will say the machine spits out your form if there is a double fill in or you don't fill in a vote for something/someone.
    After reading your blog I'm kind of sad I missed it
    jen

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    1. After I wrote the post and was driving to school I remembered that you live in Florida. :) Fortunately, I know you have a great sense of humor.
      We don't even have forms here in Indiana. Ours are all electronic now.

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  6. True, why couldn't the Democrats have all gone to one big pool party instead? :) Thanks for a more humorous take on things from last night. I've been feeling down about it today and it made me smile.

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  7. I am glad I only get a couple of channels on my TV so I missed a lot of the nonsense. I am proud of people waiting in line to vote too.

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    1. Avoiding nonsense is a great idea.

      I don't know if I could have waited that long. Quite impressive.

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  8. I was in one of those Virginia lines... with three children. We were lucky, we only waited about 2 1/2 hours after our line jump to get inside the building because it was so cold outside. My kiddos were surprisingly cooperative, however Conner was deeply disappointed to arrive at the polls and find out we weren't going boating.

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    1. Have mercy! That's a long time in line with three kids! Did you have anything for them to do? Did you know it was going to be that long? I applaud you and your kids for being so dedicated. Poor Conner. With that kind of wait, they should have brought in some boats to keep people occupied.

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    2. I brought a bunch of m&ms but mostly they were just content to people watch, there were a lot of interesting folks in our precinct. I drove by and saw the line stretching around the building and drove straight to the store to buy a large amount of candy. haha

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