Voter Policeman

Tuesday, November 8th,  I was deputized as a Poll Worker and spent 14 hours in District 13-D as the presiding Republican "Judge" (actually they are trying to get rid of the name of Judge and just call us managers).  Yes even though I call myself a Libertarian and an Indpendent, I am officially a registered Republican and therefore eligible to be a Republican Poll Worker for the Board of Elections.  Susan joined me (although it was her leadership that got me to do this) for the day with four other veteran Poll Workers who showed us the ropes.

I have a much greater appreciation for the effort we take to make elections as fair and smooth as possible.  Of course, I didn't use the word efficient - because if this was a company, there is significant room for re-engineering!!!   How a Country which leads in innovation and technology puts up with this highly manual and error prone system is an example of the "cobbler's children go barefoot". 

Any system will be subject to errors and abuse.  Why we use tradition and privacy concerns to scare us from utilizing technology is a mystery to me. 

But - with all my critical remarks, it was still a day to be proud.  When I saw a Mom and Dad proudly  (who voted at different times during the day) proudly smiling after they brought their 18 year old son to the polling location to vote for the first time, my heart was warmed -  This is a Great Country!  Let Freedom Ring!