Yes We Can!

It is 11pm on Election night. I spent the day at precinct 927 in Denver, Colorado. This was a voting place in a Town-Home club house. Most of the 500 some odd voters had already voted either by mail-in-ballot or at Early Voting. We had 64 voters (one lady was 97!); 5 poll watchers including a former Colorado first lady, Dottie Lamb; several Denver Election workers; the city councilwoman who brought us sweet rolls; a couple of UCD students doing a survey; a couple of other young people troubleshooting the election and 6 poll workers. The Election Commission is paying us for our time (a little better than minimum wage) and even gave us lunch this time. I spent the last two weeks working at an early voting center. I am very tired because I traded shifts and worked a number of doubles so that I wouldn't go 'under hours' during these two weeks. But it was worth it. I like working during the elections, I have done it for years. Even though there are always some problems, it is an American institution.
Tonite Senator McCain gave a very gracious speach when he conceeded the election. Senator (President-Elect!) Obama's speach was very inspiring. I sent a text to my daughter Becca who is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Albania. She texted back that she was watching the speech as we were. Rachael, her sister here in Colorado also called us and woke up Ismaat, our 10 year old Granddaughter, to hear President-elect Obama speak. Ismaat has been excited to watch the election. As she says, "This is a historic election." I will sleep well tonight.

I VOTED TODAY!

I have been working at one of Denver's 13 Early Voting sites since the 25th. Yesterday, a reporter from the Rocky Mountain News came to our site. This is a photo of several of the judges that I have been working with. We are open from 11 am to 7 pm each day. Today we served about 300 voters. Each voter comes in and checks in with the Registration judges. They are hooked by computer to the master poll book for the whole city. Then the voter is handed a paper ballot that corresponds to their precinct in the city. Denver has decided have as their election model, paper ballots this year. Because of the HAVA (Help America Vote Act) each center also has some touch screen voting machines. I voted using the machine. It was easy. There is a paper backup for these machines. I am worried about the time it will take Denver to process all of those paper ballots, even with 9 fast scanners working. Some of those ballots will have to be duplicated because of stray marks on the ballot or miss-marked ballots (people who marked with 'X' instead of the little line between the arrows. It was faster. I had my 'cheat sheet' with my choices ready. I am done. I think I will also be working at a polling place on Election Day. I have been an Election Judge during every election for about 30 years. I enjoy doing my part to keep our democracy.
If you haven't already - VOTE!!!!

Election

I have now switched hats and am in Election Mode. I am working Early Voting for two weeks before the elections. Then I will be a judge on Election Day in a precinct. In order to not go under hours at my job at the airport I traded days with other agents and will be working every day until the 11th of November either at DIA or for the election. Most of my days out at the airport will be doubles! I really will be ready for one of our "girl's days out"! that I have with my friends Kathy and Elenna (when she can make it).

Barak Obama in Colorado Springs

Yesterday morning David and I received an invitation to go hear candidate, Barack Obama at a private event in Colorado Springs. Since I had the day off and David didn't have to go to work until the afternoon, we RSVP'd that we would attend the speech.  We picked up our tickets outside the gym where the event would take place and while in line to enter the arena, we received green dots which allowed us to sit behind the candidate during the speech. (You can even see me in the photo from "thedenverchannel.com")
Obama spoke of the need for all Americans to perform public service of some kind. He spoke of expanding the military and it's benefits, of setting a new "energy" corps and doubling the size of the peace corps. He called for all middle school and high school students to volunteer at least 50 hours a year and for college students to get a government grant if they volunteer 100 hours each year (that's only 2 hours a week)
To read more about the morning see these news reports:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/16768499/detail.html#

http://cbs4denver.com/politics/Obama.Visit.Springs.2.761994.html

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=94923&catid=188

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_9763668

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jul/02/obama-visiting-springs-today/