I just got home. It took an hour and a half for the sheriff's deputy to come pick up the ballots and supplies. This was long after the parking operations guy had come by in his little vehicle and collected the voting machine memory card and printout of the final totals. The sheriff's deputy said he wants that job next year.

As I had suspected, the end of the election was the most eventful part of the day, and after a couple of gulps of whiskey straight from the bottle, I think I have the energy to blog about it right now...

The place was hopping from 5pm on, and everyone seemed genuinely excited about voting. There was one guy in particular who was loudly teaching his 6(ish)-year-old daughter about the voting process. There was something witty he said as they were inserting his ballots into
the "Eagle" machine when she lunged for the bag of candy, but I'm too tired to remember. It was so cleverly related to democracy and the voting process and about how her rights did not extend to candy-eating (since she'd most likely had her fill from Halloween), and it was witty enough to make me not totally annoyed by him anymore.

Speaking of the "Eagle," I had meant to write about how that thing makes noises that range from a weed-whacker to a paper-shedder to the beloved '80s Asteroids arcade game. And for the record, not a single person used the new "AutoMark" machine that marks (but doesn't count) ballots for people who "might need assistance." Rumor has it that each machine costs $10,000!

Note to future pollworkers: Vote before the election or vote early in the day. Not while huddled in the dark at 7pm on your break and on the verge of angry tears because you got called out by your kind of bitchy high school-aged clerk. (I voted late in the day--by absentee-- because I had to wait for my friend who is a public policy masters student to get her slate of endorsements sent out this morning. Plus, I was busy writing this blog on my breaks! Priorities!)

After my dinner break this evening, I stopped near Precita Park to get some coffee on the way back to the polls. This was obviously a bad decision since I had gotten completely lost every time I tried to return to the elusive voting location, on top of the bad decision to get a double soy cappuccino when I usually only drink soy au laits. My stomach was in knots after about 1/4 of the way through.

I had hiked all the way up the hill and then down again when I realized I had gone the wrong direction, away from the polling place. I was late and sweaty, and I kid you not, my glasses were steamed up (it was freaking humid out today). Then, like angels sent from heaven, came a really cool, old school, emerald green, Bronco-type, lowrider truck that was transporting a boisterous family of Latino adults. The driver asked if I knew where the polls were. When I said
it was way back up the hill and that was where I was trying to go, they told me to hop in. I have never been so in love with a family of boisterous strangers before!

Today has been a very "only in San Francisco" sort of day, and I look forward to the next election.