Thursday, November 6, 2008
Election Night in Geneva!
I had the opportunity to see the local elections of Geneva come in to the democratic head quarters Tuesday night. Having devoted a good chunk of time to volunteer and help local politicians, it was nice to see the efforts pay off. I have never before witnessed a local election's results come in the way they do it here. In addition to the presidential race, there were about 10 local races. Ranging from state assembly to judge. People were assigned to go out a retrieve the paper results from the polling sites and then report back to HQ. Geneva is divided into six different wards and each ward has two sections. As the results were coming in, the numbers were posted up on the wall coordinating with the appropriate ward and candidate. This was a live feed which gave the committee members an idea of which direction the races were going into. An exciting and suspenseful activity to sit through! In the end, the democrats made out well with about seven winning positions and three losses.
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5 comments:
I bet that was a pretty unique experience. It would be very interesting to be "behind the scenes" of an election. Seeing the votes come in and how the polls changed first hand must have been pretty cool.
It would be great to have this experience in one's hometown. Good story.
Sam
I completely agree, what a sense of satisfaction to see your efforts pay off. My parents worked on Obama's campaign, going down to Pennsylvania and literally knocking on the citizens doors (since Penn was a major state for Obama) and I can imagine you got the same sense of appreciation and excitement that they did at seeing your efforts pay off!
-Anna0
That must have been amazing! Even though I was minimally involved in the Obama campaign (calling, canvasing, etc) it was exciting to feel that maybe my tiny input helped. I'm interested in how Geneva does their polling. Who was in charge of counting the votes and updating the "live feed"? Were they hand written ballots, punch out ones or something else? Were there any really tight races?
There were various people assigned to each ward and the sections within the ward. The voting machines in Geneva consist of the lever system. The assigned workers of the Democratic Committee were tasked with the duty of tallying up all the votes once the polls closed. When they reach HQ, their numbers are double checked and then posted. Some of the races were relatively close.
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