VOTE

So today I took the day off from work to help out at the polls. I went early in the morning to a neighboring precinct, where I was armed with sample democratic ballots to greet voters. I shared a smile and some pleasantries with my Republican counterpart. Then things started to get weird. He was replaced by another man (they were both in full suits, sometimes I think they try to be parodies) who was nasty. I was shocked. I tried to chat with him, mentioning how the weather was nice and I was glad it was sunny. He shot back "I'd rather it be raining, it would keep your people inside". Ok, that could have been a joke. Checked him out, it wasn't. A little while later I tried again, as an old car wheezed into the parking lot. "Sounds like my car, I've got this old Subaru.." he didn't wait until I finished and said "Maybe if Obama wins he'll buy you a new car. Hopefully with his own money, and not everyone else's." I really can't do it justice how incredibly mean and nasty this dude's tone of voice was. Needless to say I stopped trying. 

Then things got even worse. He was replaced by a woman (in really ill-fitting pants) who didn't even make eye contact. Then, three kids (oldest maybe 12, youngest around 9) showed up with leaflets. I thought they were advertising a bake sale or something. Nope. It was an outline of the "moral positions" of each candidate. You know, atrocities like gay marriage, right to choose - those kinds of scary things. The littlest one was running into the parking lot (I eventually stopped cautioning him about running into traffic) and accosting people as they got out of their cars. He shoved the flyer in their face and told them that they were making sure people voted "for the candidate that had the right moral stand" on the issues. The right one. THEN, then! The kid asked people (more like demanded, but by this point I was ready to get into a shoving fight with a 9 year old) who they were voting for. No matter how many times they, or I, told the kids that they can't ask they persisted. The oldest girl sidled up to me and asked, oh so sweetly, how I could vote for Obama. I told her I just LOVED his social positions. She stayed very far away from me for the rest of the morning. 

As disturbing as this was, worse was when the woman in the ill-fitting pants (and really bad, thick lipstick) started commiserating with these children about how much they hate Obama, and how the country is going to fall apart if he gets in. "It'll be the end of us all", they lamented. I couldn't help myself. "I sure hope so", I chirped with a HUGE smile.