Voting

Three years ago, I volunteered to work at the polls for the Presidential election. We're looking for people to be judge of elections, they said. Well....okay, I replied. And you know what? I really enjoyed it. It was great fun. It was important, and there were a lot of people voting, people who normally don't vote, and I was helping to make it happen. I was very pleased. We were busy all day long, and there was a lot to do. We made it work, and what we did mattered.

Since then, the experience has paled. In each of the elections since then, there's been long periods of time when I'm counting down the hours. To the point where I won't even let myself do that before 1PM, because at that point there's only eight hours of boredom left. Twenty minutes of activity in the morning, trickles through the day, one to two hour periods when absolutely no one comes in, a short burst around 6PM, two more hours, then an hour to an hour and a half to shut it all down, count the votes, fill out the tons of paperwork, pack it all up, get the votes out to the county. And then I get to go back home, finally.

I'm not exactly sure why I want to stop -- the boredom is a lot of it -- but a big part is that it just isn't fun any more. I don't feel like it matters. So, two more times, and then I'll just be a voter again. I'll make a note to go vote, and that'll be fifteen minutes of my day. Done.

I'm looking forward to it. I think. Ask me next November.