November 02, 2004
Electioneering.
Google has information on how to find your polling place, as well as blogs about election shenanigans. The photograph above doesn't show the line that stretched down the block, past the placard-waving idealists, in front of the honking cars, around the vandalised taqueria, and ended with an old woman sitting in a lawn chair. Once inside the polling place, people were pushed up into every corner, furiously filling out the four voting sheets. Some people didn't know to remove their voting receipt from the ballot before feeding it into the Eagle vote tabulator, and did not receive proof of voting as a result. The official Board of Elections sign above the tabulator had the cart before the horse: "Insert ballot into Eagle / Remove receipt" it read in three languages, but really one had to remove the receipt first, and then feed the Eagle.
I've voted early and often in the San Francisco General and Consolidated, but never have I seen this energetic and this involved a line. The day-labourer election officials were, of course, overwhelmed and even more flustered that usual. Voters were well-behaved, but it's early yet (writing this from a phone while waiting in line!).