I can't help but think of what I was doing on election day 8 years ago. I worked at the Bay County, FL (yes, Florida) Supervisor of Elections office. Election day fell on my 25th birthday and was probably the longest work day of my life. What I remember most about that day are the phones ringing off the hook. And I distinctly remember getting phone calls right after 6pm asking if the polls were still open because the national news had just declared "polls closed" in Florida. Bay County is in the central time zone but I still had to convince the callers that our polls were indeed open another hour. Little did we know what was about to unfold just hours from then.
Fortunately, Bay County did not use punch ballots. We did not have any "hanging Chads" issues. But we still had to conduct a recount which I believe was statewide no matter what voting system the county had in place. That meant hand sorting some 65,000 paper ballots. It was a chore to say the least. A chore we would repeat a second time for the Miami Herald.
What began the summer before as a temporary job doing light office work turned into a permanent position and even more importantly, memories to last a lifetime. Perhaps one day I will be helping the boys with their American History lessons and be able to share my first-hand account of events from that fateful day.
To my friends still employed at the Elections Office- Terri, Angela, Jackie, Larry- know that I am thinking of you on this insanely busy day and the coming weeks ahead. I wish I was there to help out.
2 comments:
That had to be a fun day!
You are such a good American! Work for our country girl! I'm sure some of those people would've just said the polls were closed and went out for a beer a little earlier! hahaha
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