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ch-scene - Re: best place to vote early in Durham

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  • From: Chris Calloway <ifoufo AT yahoo.com>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: best place to vote early in Durham
  • Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 14:21:22 -0700 (PDT)

--- grady <grady AT ibiblio.org> wrote:
> 1) applicable to a certain percentage of the
> population, certainly, and
> I'm fully in favor of them voting early. Hopefully
> folks would know if
> they fit into that percentage, but mebbe not.

In Durham County, it would be over half the registered
population.

There are over 30,000 newly registered voters in
Durham County. There are over 50,000 African American
Democrats is Durham County. Over half the registered
voters in Durham County are in categories targeted for
challenges.

> 2) applicable to people who have all day election
> day to devote to GOTV
> efforts, and I'm fully in favor of them voting early
> as well.

I don't know any responsible people who aren't taking
Election Day off to work. (Of course, that's kind of
my definition of responsible. :) The more people we
make this applicable to, the better.

> 3) Applicable to party operatives who care whether
> the watchers' &
> flushers' time is being wasted.

The watchers and flushers care, too. As should anyone
who wants to see the GOTV effort be effective. I would
assume this is anyone who cares about the election
results. This is applicable to more than whom you
would simply choose to apply. It is applicable to
those whom you choose to apply. It's just applicable
to more than those.

Also, every active party member in Durham County is a
volunteer. Where do I apply for "party operative?"

> I'm registered
> unaffiliated so
> presumably watchers & flushers don't care about me
> anyway.

I can't speak to this at this time, but you are
incorrect.

If it were up to just me, you would be correct. I
don't care about unaffiliateds. But others do.
Somebody cares about you. Luckily, each volunteer gets
to work on what they care about. I would care about
you more, but I think my time is better spent caring
about those who bother to care about affiliating. If I
ever get to the point of having enough resources to
have all of those people taken care of, then I'll
consider expanding the circle of people I care about.
But other people have different approaches.

> I know more
> than a few people who have stated that they'd be
> really pissed to be
> "flushed" on election day, but so I guess perversely
> it would benefit
> them to vote early as well, just to avoid the
> hectoring phone calls.

I would assume among those who don't care enough to
affiliate, this may be true. It doesn't apply to the
circles I would choose to apply effort. In my travels,
I find nothing but gratitude that someone would care
enough about them to knock on their door. I don't make
phone calls. I find personal visits work so far and
away better, that phone calling is a waste of time in
my play book. I also don't hector. If I ever were to
encounter someone who acted pissed, I'd just excuse
myself, mark them off my list, shake the sand from my
feet and move along. That's the training I've gotten.
I don't know how PACs and 527s handle it.

> 4) You'd be the one to ask: how about that
> booths/hour ratio for early
> voting vs election day? & are the various BOEs
> talking about revamping
> the process *again* for next time to shorten the
> lines, or are they
> hoping it'll normalize itself?

I know of numerous complaints that have been filed
about the long lines. The BOE planned to handle 100
persons per hour per location. Sometimes in practice
it slowed to 20 people per hour and then some tuning
was applied to get it back up to spec. On the first
day, one location had over 1200 people show up at the
same time. There were some angry people, but I think
they asked for it by all showing up at the same time
on purpose. I personally feel the Durham BOE is doing
all they can with the resources they have. I think the
Durham County BOE is staffed with very honest and hard
working people with great attitudes. I didn't expect
to find this, but I was very happy when I did. I don't
know how they plan to assess the process after the
fact. Given the costs, I don't see how much more they
could do. I think the early voting has been a
tremendous success and I think the complainers are a
vocal minority who just aren't thinking very clearly.
I think the Durham BOE will do everything the can to
address complaints. Anything they don't do won't be a
matter of hoping it just works out. I will be a matter
of having done everything they could. Not so
ironically, 100 people per hour per location turned
out to be just a tad more capacity than the number who
chose to take advantage of it. I think that speaks
pretty well for their planning.

> I just find it humorous that I know more than a few
> people who fit into
> none of the above categories but who've still spent
> one or more hours on
> one or more trips trying to vote early.
> [...]
> if you show up at
> the crack of dawn, you're not going to be in line
> for more than 10-15
> minutes.

Now that's humorous. You don't know many people who
fit the categories, when it's over half the people,
but you do think people should show up at 6:30 am.
Let's all do that. Let's all show up at 6:30 am.
That'll show how humorous early voting is.

I tell you what. I'm a poll observer who will be
inside a polling place all day from opening to
closing. I'll let you know on Wednesday how many
people were lined up at 6:30 am. :)

We don't need ATMs, either. Just a fad. If you need to
go to the bank, just show up at 9am before the crowds.

> Unless of course *everybody* takes my advice & the
> line's 4 hours long
> by the time the polls open.

See, either way, it's nutty to say early voting is
somehow inadvisable because you can vote at 6:30am on
one certain day. If lines are short at 6:30am, well,
*you* had to get up and be there at 6:30am in order to
beat the crowds. How likely is that to help turnout?
But then, if everybody takes your advice, then the
lines are long. You are talking yourself into a double
bind here, Ross.

Providing more opportunities is a good thing. How do
you argue or find cynical humor in that?

Duncan, as for old ladies with walkers, there's also
drive-up service, both at the polls and at early
voting.

I'd like to report that seeing Jon Bon Jovi was more
entertaining than I thought it would be.

3



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