It's Election Day - Be Kind To Your Poll Workers
Plus, a Porte story that has a lot to say about elections today
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Good Morning from Martinsburg, West Virginia—the hometown of our good friend Porte Crayon.
It’s been warm—unusually warm around here for early November. So warm, in fact, that the leaves are probably confused. Can’t blame them for wondering why they’re falling to the ground when it still feels a whole lot like summer.
I’m no scientist, which is a good thing because if I were I’d say the weather has probably been influenced by all the hot air coming from an overheated election in which millions of Americans have already voted.
I failed to join them, so I’ll soon be headed over to the elementary school where my kids spent a few years on their way to becoming fully formed humans. They’re young adults now, but still a work in progress, if you ask me. What parent doesn’t occasionally wish their kids would just grow up a little?
I don’t really have much to complain about. They’re getting there. After all, my son is employed. He’s a radio man like his pop. You might even hear him reporting election results.
My daughter is a student at West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV. She came home specifically to vote, but she’s also been fattening me up with the muffins and decadent brownies she’s been baking while waiting to go to the polls.
My impending diet is another story. The point is, all those times my wife and I took the kids to the polls while the kids were growing up is paying off.
Both of them are voters.
I don’t mind voting on Election Day. I look forward to waiting in line and catching up with friends and neighbors before checking in with the familiar faces of the poll workers who have overseen voting in my district for as long as I can remember.
They’re a welcome sight, my poll workers. I like to exchange pleasantries and chat them up while they look for my name in the book they maintain to make sure I’m registered and to keep track of who’s voted and who hasn’t. I only see them every couple years, but they are part of the process—part of Election Day. I would miss them if I had handed in my ballot early.
One of them is a skinny guy who wears his long hair in a pony tail. Most are retirees, if I had to guess. One older gentlemen wears thick glasses. Another is so round, if you knocked him down, he’d likely bounce right back up. Old Weeble jokes aside, they're all good people, which makes reports of intimidation aimed at poll workers by election deniers unsettling.
As far as I know, we haven’t had much of an intimidation problem around here, but it will still come as something of a relief to see the faces I’m expecting to see. They’ve earned my confidence through years of service.
Much of the focus this year has been on the balance of power in Congress and I’ll likely be helping to keep track of the key races around the country when I start my newsroom shift tonight. But the election is more than simply about cutthroat national politics.
In addition to electing two House members, West Virginia voters like me are choosing state senators and delegates to serve in the Legislature. There are FOUR amendments to the state constitution to be considered and in Berkeley County, where I live, voters will decide hyper-local races such as Circuit Clerk, County Clerk and two County Council seats—all just as important and as worthy of your vote as any other race.
Today being Election Day, I thought it appropriate to share a Porte Crayon story of a candidacy gone horribly wrong.
“Confessions of a Candidate” was published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine on January 31st, 1876, and it tells a familiar story of the corrupting power of politics.
I think it has a lot to say about the elections of today.
I would have pasted it into the body of today’s newsletter, but it would have made it excessively long and maybe somewhat intimidating.
Plus, I’m ready to knock off for the night. It’s getting late, so in the interest of time and space, here’s a PDF of the story that you can easily download and read at your leisure.
Let me know what you think and feel free pass along any ideas you might have for the PCAS newsletter.
See you on the radio this weekend.
Thanks for the encouraging words, Giles. As you know, I'm a poll worker this year. In my case, I hope voters are patient as well as kind as I figure this out. I'll let you know how it goes. Yay for raising your kids to be voters!