Into the belly of the Beast......
Nov. 2nd, 2004 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poltr1After voting this morning, ate breakfast, and took a nap, I drove down to the Amos Project center in Cincinnati to get my Election Protection assigment. I was to work two shifts in front of the polling place of Precinct 9F, in the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati, assisting voters who encountered difficulties or problems during the voting process.
Walnut Hills is a lower-class neighborhood, southeast of the University area. Many of its residents are African-American. And like many such neighborhoods in the country, the political orientation is very Democratic. I saw no Bush signs and lots of Kerry signs in the nighborhood.
I arrived a little after 1 pm. There was a light rain. There were representatives of the Democratic campaign there, as well as 3 members of an "equal rights, not special rights" coalition to defeat Issue 3. (Issue 3 was a vote to repeal Article XII in the Cincinnati City Charter -- legislation which forbids the City Council to draft, enact, or any law based on a person's sexual orientation. In other words, if Matthew Shepard was killed in Cincinnati, it would be treated as a simple murder and not a hate crime. Cincinnati is the only city in the country to have such a rule, and has lost lots of convention and tourism business because of it.) I didn't interface with the people in the other groups too much -- after all, I'm representing a non-partisan organization. Thankfully, there were no shouting matches.
There were several of us from Election Protection there throughout the day -- Leslie, Stefan (a UC grad student from Germany), David (a law student), and Marianne. Several law students from Indiana University Law School were canvassing the neighborhood, encouraging people to come out and vote. We handed out copies of the Ohio Voter's Bill of Rights, offered to help people if there were registration problems, and thanked people for voting. Other volunteers dropped off sandwiches and pop for lunch.
There were a few snafus throughout the day. Most of these were people who were either first-time voters or people who weren't in the right precinct. At one point, one of the employees of the recreation center that served as the polling place advised us to move across the street since were were on city property, and the city council had sent the parks and recreation department new instructions. I asked for a copy of the email message which stated this, and I never received it. As I understand it, the rule is that there are to be no campaign workers -- partisan or non-partisan -- within 100 feet of the entrance to the polling place (which was marked by a small American flag). I called my legal team to confirm this, and they backed up my position.
The weather didn't completely clear up. There was light rain in the afternoon, with a few periods of no rain. At around 5:30 pm, it poured for a few minutes. Then it cooled off.
I helped save two votes later that evening. One was a woman who was illiterate and needed someone to help read the ballot to her. I did so while her husband advised her who to vote for. The other was a first-time voter who lived in the precinct but didn't show up in the board of elections records. She ended up casting a provisional ballot.
After the polls closed at 7:30 pm, we headed back to the Amos Project center to turn in our paperwork and site kits, and to have a quick bite to eat for dinner. Since the dinner was nothing more than the leftover sandwiches from lunch, I grabbed a sandwich and left for home.
Now I'll sit back and watch the results come in. But I really don't expect to hear a winner tonight.
Walnut Hills is a lower-class neighborhood, southeast of the University area. Many of its residents are African-American. And like many such neighborhoods in the country, the political orientation is very Democratic. I saw no Bush signs and lots of Kerry signs in the nighborhood.
I arrived a little after 1 pm. There was a light rain. There were representatives of the Democratic campaign there, as well as 3 members of an "equal rights, not special rights" coalition to defeat Issue 3. (Issue 3 was a vote to repeal Article XII in the Cincinnati City Charter -- legislation which forbids the City Council to draft, enact, or any law based on a person's sexual orientation. In other words, if Matthew Shepard was killed in Cincinnati, it would be treated as a simple murder and not a hate crime. Cincinnati is the only city in the country to have such a rule, and has lost lots of convention and tourism business because of it.) I didn't interface with the people in the other groups too much -- after all, I'm representing a non-partisan organization. Thankfully, there were no shouting matches.
There were several of us from Election Protection there throughout the day -- Leslie, Stefan (a UC grad student from Germany), David (a law student), and Marianne. Several law students from Indiana University Law School were canvassing the neighborhood, encouraging people to come out and vote. We handed out copies of the Ohio Voter's Bill of Rights, offered to help people if there were registration problems, and thanked people for voting. Other volunteers dropped off sandwiches and pop for lunch.
There were a few snafus throughout the day. Most of these were people who were either first-time voters or people who weren't in the right precinct. At one point, one of the employees of the recreation center that served as the polling place advised us to move across the street since were were on city property, and the city council had sent the parks and recreation department new instructions. I asked for a copy of the email message which stated this, and I never received it. As I understand it, the rule is that there are to be no campaign workers -- partisan or non-partisan -- within 100 feet of the entrance to the polling place (which was marked by a small American flag). I called my legal team to confirm this, and they backed up my position.
The weather didn't completely clear up. There was light rain in the afternoon, with a few periods of no rain. At around 5:30 pm, it poured for a few minutes. Then it cooled off.
I helped save two votes later that evening. One was a woman who was illiterate and needed someone to help read the ballot to her. I did so while her husband advised her who to vote for. The other was a first-time voter who lived in the precinct but didn't show up in the board of elections records. She ended up casting a provisional ballot.
After the polls closed at 7:30 pm, we headed back to the Amos Project center to turn in our paperwork and site kits, and to have a quick bite to eat for dinner. Since the dinner was nothing more than the leftover sandwiches from lunch, I grabbed a sandwich and left for home.
Now I'll sit back and watch the results come in. But I really don't expect to hear a winner tonight.
