Poll worker pals
On election day, I served as an outside poll monitor for the Obama campaign at a polling station at a church in Wendell, standing in the raw chill from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. My companions were several GOP workers cheerfully approaching every arriving voter with “voter guides” for judicial and state offices, plus a lone lady handing out Dem-affiliated voter guides.
Though we respectively worked and hoped for sharply different outcomes from the election, friendly comradery and civility prevailed among us, and we all kept up friendly chat throughout the morning, helping mightily to make the raw conditions pleasantly bearable. A candidate for judge worked the crowd with us for part of the morning (he wound up winning).
Voting proceeded with quick efficiency throughout the morning, without any of the problems for voters seen in some other states. This was a shining example of precinct-level grass-roots democracy at its finest on both sides, and indirectly, of the election officials inside. It’s a good thing for North Carolina and the country that people got to exercise their right to vote (and advocate) with so vanishingly few problems, and with such pleasant civility.
BTW: The lunch spot the GOP operatives suggested to me (Aubrey’s) in Wendell was excellent, thank you!
Chris Mohr
Raleigh
