The Day Before the Election

This is a vacation week for me. When else is a better time to take vacation days than election week? I volunteered today and will be doing more volunteering for the Democratic party tomorrow.

Today it was more phone-banking. I even got to talk to a woman who wouldn’t vote for Obama because he was…you know…a Muslim. Sheesh. She also swore that she heard Obama say in a speech over the weekend thatMcCain shouldn’t call Obama a “Child of God.” Huh? I actually had read about that speech. It was Obama declaring that McCain had called Obama everything BUT a “Child of God.” I couldn’t make the woman believe that and as Obama is a Muslim (let me roll my eyes here), I stayed pleasant and did urge her to vote for Ann Kirkpatrick for Congress. I think she might, as she seemed to sense my unhappiness about her opinions on Obama.

The real fun today was that Ann Kirkpatrick showed up to do some phone-banking herself. I even got to ask her about her hair. Okay, what a silly thing to ask, but I loved her curly locks, and as a curly girl myself, I felt that she betrayed the honor of curldom by straightening her hair. She did laugh as I asked her and made a good argument when I asked why she got rid of the curls, “When you’ve been campaigning for two years the last thing you want to worry about is your hair. You just try to give a speech outside on a windy day. It helps to have your hair fall back flat and in place.”  Okay, okay, I’ll cut her some slack.

She did make calls for about an hour or so. We weren’t getting too many live bodies when calling, but she did get a few. I’d probably faint if a candidate actually called me to tell me my polling place. At one point it worked out that the rest of us in the room had finished a round of calling and heard Ann on the phone. I know that I was curious to hear how she did and listened. The rest of us did too. She did great. In fact, after she hung up, we all clapped and cheered for her good job. Ann laughed and blushed.

Tomorrow, election day, should prove interesting. Tons of volunteers, but I don’t know what we’ll be doing. We already were on the third round of calling the people on the phone lists.

All I know is that I’m glad that the election is here. I can’t take much more of this.

Early Voting in Arizona on the Huge Side

It looks like early voting is heavy in Arizona. I’d been wondering about it. I voted back in early October and there were no lines, but it seems that there are lines now. According to a Phoenix news station:

…the turnout has been so big that some people have reported waiting up to four hours to cast their ballots.

and

There are 1.7 million voters registered in Maricopa County. Nearly 1/3 of them have already cast their ballots.

“We are processing ballots as fast as possible,” Purcell said. “We’ve got over 520,000 back in the house. We’ll get those processed. We counted over 100,000 yesterday.”

I watched the video that went along with the article and had a pleasant surprise. Bob Vanwyck is interviewed as he was one of the people waiting to vote. I was in a play with Bob. In fact, he played my husband. He obviously lived in Flagstaff then. It’s been ages since I saw him, but there he was, in a TV news story, waiting to do his democratic duty.

Pima county is also seeing a large turnout, which is good, as it runs bluer than Maricopa county.

More than 11,000 people have voted early in person at offices downtown and satellite polling places, Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez said Thursday evening…

…Rodriguez said she expects the numbers of voters coming to the early voting stations to increase as the election draws nearer.

There are almost 500,000 registered voters in Pima County and about half will vote early, either via mail or at satellite polling stations, she said.

Very nice.

Phone-Banking Fun

Okay, “Phone-Banking Fun” is not an accurate title. Phone-banking is not necessarily fun. Sometimes you talk to an enthusiastic potential voter and it makes up for all the voice mail messages you have to leave, but I’m still not going to define it as fun. Sometimes you get a grumpy person that you have to cheerfully urge to go to the polls. Nope, fun is not the word.

My goal tonight was to remind people that Tuesday is election day. I’d tell them where to vote, plus remind them that in Arizona they better bring some ID. You know, some folks were happy to talk to me; some not so happy, but overall, us voters in Arizona haven’t had many phone calls this election season. The last couple of elections it seemed that I would have at least three messages waiting for me urging to vote for someone. This year it’s been awfully quiet. Though I do hear that John McCain has decided to do some robo-calling to remind us that he’s our senator and Obama is dangerous…or something like that.

Ugh. Robocalls. At least when I’m phone-banking at county Democratic Party headquarters I’m a real live person calling. And I’m trying to provide information to help the voters. So there.

Yeah, it’s not fun, but it does feel good doing the calling. I urge everyone to vote if they can and to ask others to vote too. Having a record-breaking turnout on election day voting for Obama and change is my idea of fun.

Volunteer Time

Today I worked at the local Dem Headquarters. I’ve been rather lax in my election volunteering, but scheduled time for today, for Thursday, Saturday, and as I’m taking off all next week, both Monday and election day.

My job today was to call folks who requested an early ballot and to make sure they got the ballot and ask if they’ve sent it back. Easy-peasy. This weekend will involve neighborhood walking.

At HQ we were all excited by the latest polls showing a tightening race in Arizona. There’s been three polls in the last few days, putting the race within 5 points or less. DailyKos has a good roundup of the polls. Knowing that the race is close makes volunteering so much more fun.

Obama Got One Vote Today

No, this isn’t an inspirational anecdote about someone who decided to vote for Obama. No, this is just a post to say that I went out and voted today.

I love voting early. I just have to go down to the county offices and you can get in and vote. If you live in Coconino county, here are the locations you can go and vote: Early Voting Sites.

My biggest issue with voting is that the list of propositions can confuse me. I must study them, discuss them with others, and then make my list. This year it’s easy. Vote no on all of them except the last one. Not many would agree about the last one. That’s the proposition to increase the state legislators’ salaries. It rarely passes, but my belief is that the low salary only allows the wealthy to run for office. And who knows? Someday I may want to run for office — it would be nice to have a salary greater than $26,000.

I also usually fret over the judges section — where we are asked whether this judge or that judge should be retained. How the heck should I know? I don’t want to vote to retain someone who is a judicial idiot, but i don’t want to vote to get rid of someone who’s been doing a decent job. Usually I just don’t vote that section. Until today’s discovery: a site that reviews the judges’ performances. The Arizona Commission on Judicial Performances gets feedback from attorneys and other judges. I checked the list that Coconino county voters would vote on and the three judges look pretty darn good.

So I voted today, and you know what? It feels pretty darn frakking good. Fingers crossed, prayers said, and may this election turn out good.

Tonight’s Debate

Okay, I got to hear a good chunk of the debate, but missed the first half hour due to working late. I’m thinking Obama won tonight, but it’s hard to tell how it looks to people when you only listen on the radio. Of course, the debate also seemed pretty boring. I’m falling asleep here.

I’m going to vote this week. I love early voting. The debate hasn’t changed my mind…like it would. Please let’s get some grown-ups in charge. I’m voting for Obama.

I am Single Woman, Hear Me Roar

I’m in a majority!  Single womanhood is on the march and I’m part of the parade.

For the first time, according to Census results, more women, 51 percent, are living without a spouse than with one.

Digby looks at how it impacts politics. Interesting how our culture changes.

Happy Dancing

I’m a happy girl this morning. It was a late night watching election returns, but unlike the past 12 years, the only yelling at the TV was in glee and not rage. We didn’t win all the races and ballot propositions I wanted us to win (gee, Arizona and CD-1, what’s the deal?), but seeing Hayworth lose was a thrill (that blowhard used to represent Flagstsff).

I was at a small party last night and the fun in cheering on the various races across the country changed to amazement as we realized that the Dems could win the Senate. I’d thought we had lost Missourri, but no, when it changed late in the evening the few of us left at the party were ecstatic.

It’s so nice to wake up with a smile on the day after Election Day. I didn’t have to glumly turn off the radio either. My, I’m liking this.

Vote!

Today’s the day. I’ve been doing some phone-banking at the county Dem HQ and will try to volunteer today between work commitments. So, please, vote! Don’t make me call you.

It’s a Crazy System, but It’s Our System

Whew. Have you ever tried to explain our election system to non-Americans? Man, I’m wrung out. We have some student workers from different countries.  Today I went back to the student worker area and did my pep talk about voting (in a non-partisan way), but when one person was from India and another from Germany my pep talk didn’t go so well.

It was when one of the students started asking about what we are voting for and when the other asked if the governors selected the president that my pep talk turned into a lesson on American politics.

• No, the House of Representatives and the Senate do not report to the President. They’re equals.
• Yes, there are state offices that we also vote for.
• Ah, all members of the House of Representatives are up for election every two years, while Senators have to face us every six years.
• There are supposed to be three branches of government: legislative, executive, and the judiciary. Checks and balances, baby!  Okay, not lately, but it’s supposed to be checked and balanced.
• The presidential election is every four years and yes, we are also electing Representatives and possibly a Senator at the same time.
• Yes, for silly reasons Election Day is on a Tuesday, yet each state can set up early voting and registration dates.

Oh my. It was the Electoral College that took some explaining. Does anyone understand that antiquated system?  I think I did okay.  Vivek seemed satisfied that he understood it. Coming from a parliamentary system he wasn’t aware that we voted for President, not Congress, but then we do have that Electoral College thingie which confuses everything.

So, as my pep talk about voting didn’t do so well, I’m doing it here: VOTE!