Long Day, Eventful Day

This morning, I set my alarm for half-past-three in the morning. I had to be at work at five in order to open the site up for the poll workers in time for them to get things up and running by six, when voting began. By five minutes to six, a handful of people had lined up to vote, and it's been a steady stream of voters ever since. I was heartened to see a lot of people bringing their children with them, and a good number of them took pictures.

At about eight, though, a coworker of mine who was here to vote felt lightheaded and slumped against a table. It being around shift time, practically the entire local police force showed up, including two sergeants. EMTs from three localities arrived, and my coworker was taken, coherent but lightheaded, to a local hospital. I spent much of the morning filling out an incident report.

It's been less exciting since that scare, and the voting continued unabated until right about now, when we are getting people coming in in dribs and drabs to vote. For a while, the local senior community was busing in voters, but I believe now is the lunch hour. I have come to know the shuttle bus driver, an immigrant from Scotland with a brae sense of humor and an impressive brogue, over the years, and we have developed getting voters from bus to polling place into an art- today, the rain has been heavy, so we've been put through our paces.

I get off of work at 5PM and will return to my beloved Yonkers to vote. In the meantime, I have to note that the atmosphere here has been upbeat, with people happy to perform their civic duties.