Our day started at 5 a.m., 11 election judges, including myself, set up voting booths, computers, and printers. We posted instructions in the halls and on windows and set up signs in the parking lot. Half of us were Republicans, the other Democrats, and we all decided to spend Election Day making sure everyone’s vote got counted for 15 hours straight.
Throughout both the shortest and longest day of my life I worked every station from greeting voters, registering new ones, printing ballots, to processing ballots and handing out those iconic ‘I Voted’ stickers. We greeted every voter with kindness and when they left we thanked them for voting. I had no idea how any of them voted and most people were kind and excited to be there. Many voters came in with an air of apprehension, but we met them all with a positive attitude, with any of our exhaustion only expressing itself in an inability to spell common names as the night drew on.
People who came in, lived no more than 10 square blocks from me and all took time out of their lives to do their civic duty. I registered classmates and watched (with just a hint of jealousy) as they cast their first ballots. Fueled by buckets of caffeine, I printed out ballots for long time voters, immigrants, and even my former teachers. As the day ticked on, I stopped wondering who would get their vote for president. I was just thrilled that when that night ended, we had watched hundreds of people make their voices heard.
There is a tendency in our current political climate to demonize those on the other side of the aisle. It is much easier to label people as ‘radical socialists’ or ‘uneducated bigots’ than to accept that there is more than one way to look at the world. A person’s political views are only one facet of who they are and we cannot afford to write our neighbors off so easily.
Half of this country is wholly devastated about the results of the presidential election, the other half is thrilled. That’s how democracy works. Our system can be frustrating, beautiful, inefficient, disappointing, revolutionary, and surprising. No matter how you feel about the results, this system is the one we have and should feel privileged to know that there will always be another chance.
In the meantime, the real danger is keeping on your horse-blinders and vilifying your neighbors just because of an election. That will help no one. Stay politically active and make your voice heard, but leave it at that. Think what you want about someone’s choice to vote for Trump or Harris, but you are doing yourself a disservice if you let that one choice define your neighbor’s character. I know it sounds corny, but isn’t it more important to come together in tough times than to let something we can’t control ruin the holidays?
