Election day funnies
So while I am at the poll this morning, per my last message, I am in line for about 20-30 minutes... but this is plenty of time for some fun things to happen!
Let me paint a picture for you. The poll is in the building where my mom lives. I lived there from about 1990(a year after we moved to the US) until I left for college. I live 1/2 block down the street now, so still the "old h00d" for me. The neighborhood when we moved there was predominanlty lower class, primarily african american and hispanic. Now my mom's building is probably 75% african... I can't really tell you which, but when they talk, there is one english word, and then a few clicks and pops... Now there is gentrification, so you have section 8 housing nearby (gov't subsidized) and $400k condos pretty much across the street from each other. There is a 27 year old mexican kid that got beaten to death last thursday a block down the street from my house... in his house, by a couple of blakc (african american) guys when he invited them over to buy some crack. Anyway, great neighborhood, lots of character.
So the funnies:
- about 3 minutes after getting in line, one of the judges walks out, and asks people their last names, and breaks them up into two lines. See, they have two books with names, and the alphabet is devided into two... so... well, anyway, the line that is the later part of the alphabet (you'd be surprised that 0verfiend is in the end :lol)... is about 1/2 of the other line. This leads to A LOT of arguing... why is one line shorter than the other. I just stand, and observe the judge try to explain this. It is fun.
- a few minutes later one of the people in my line seems to not be found. It apears she moved, and the book they are using is old. Anyway, so she has to fill out another form, blah blah, and do some special voting thing. So there are three english speaking people that are working the poll. One may have some mental handicaps... but at least he speaks english. There is one other guy that speaks good english, but I am glad he also speaks whatever the clicking language the other people speak, since he is controlling them a bit. So now the english speaking guy is trying to explain to the asian guy (seems to be in charge) what this woman has to do... and now they are calling over the tribal leader (hey, if animal planet can name them, so can I). And the three of them are trying to figure shit out. Now one of the women behind me starts yelling, that she has to go to the store, and why isn't the line moving... good thing the tribal leader can calm her down with a few clicks and pops.
- It is all sorted now, and now there is another woman that starts yelling from the other line about what is taking so long, and that she is missing her shows trying to vote. At this point I tell her that she can come back tomorrow and I'm sure there will be less people. She has a blank look on her face, as a few people around us snicker. The girl next to me tells me I'm not nice making fun of people. I tell her that if she isn't that bright, she shouldn't be voting. The girl seems to have taken offence to this, so I turn away.
- I will call the next girl I will talk about Shanaynay, just because that is the name of the character that was on the show Martin... if you don't know, look it up... anyway, so she gets her ballot, and is pointed to a booth by the tribal leader. She walks over, and then calls out to him "Hey you, come here" Now this is a pretty small room, so no reason to yell, but OK. So nbow she asks him "So how I do this thing?" Now as most of you that voted probably know, there are instructions all over, and really, I think that most 1st graders can figure it out, but who am I to judge. So the guy tries to explain to her how to vote... he is being very good about saying things like "a candidate" and "your candidate" And she is being very funny (to me) saying things like "Shit, quit playin' you know who I want" and she actually said that she wouldn't be here if it wasn't for "the brotha." so now the judge pretty much walks her through how to vote for "her candidate"
(in case you want to know, in IL we have a ballot that looks like this:
NAME1 <= =
NAME2 <= =
For you to vote, you draw a line:
NAME1 <===
Anyway...) So now she is asking "what's all this other shit on here" he tries to explain to her that this is an "election" and there are other people running. She proceeds to complain that she is busy, and doesn't want to fill the rest of it out. He tells her that she is free to vote for only the races she wants. She finishes and leaves.
Good times, good times!
Let me paint a picture for you. The poll is in the building where my mom lives. I lived there from about 1990(a year after we moved to the US) until I left for college. I live 1/2 block down the street now, so still the "old h00d" for me. The neighborhood when we moved there was predominanlty lower class, primarily african american and hispanic. Now my mom's building is probably 75% african... I can't really tell you which, but when they talk, there is one english word, and then a few clicks and pops... Now there is gentrification, so you have section 8 housing nearby (gov't subsidized) and $400k condos pretty much across the street from each other. There is a 27 year old mexican kid that got beaten to death last thursday a block down the street from my house... in his house, by a couple of blakc (african american) guys when he invited them over to buy some crack. Anyway, great neighborhood, lots of character.
So the funnies:
- about 3 minutes after getting in line, one of the judges walks out, and asks people their last names, and breaks them up into two lines. See, they have two books with names, and the alphabet is devided into two... so... well, anyway, the line that is the later part of the alphabet (you'd be surprised that 0verfiend is in the end :lol)... is about 1/2 of the other line. This leads to A LOT of arguing... why is one line shorter than the other. I just stand, and observe the judge try to explain this. It is fun.
- a few minutes later one of the people in my line seems to not be found. It apears she moved, and the book they are using is old. Anyway, so she has to fill out another form, blah blah, and do some special voting thing. So there are three english speaking people that are working the poll. One may have some mental handicaps... but at least he speaks english. There is one other guy that speaks good english, but I am glad he also speaks whatever the clicking language the other people speak, since he is controlling them a bit. So now the english speaking guy is trying to explain to the asian guy (seems to be in charge) what this woman has to do... and now they are calling over the tribal leader (hey, if animal planet can name them, so can I). And the three of them are trying to figure shit out. Now one of the women behind me starts yelling, that she has to go to the store, and why isn't the line moving... good thing the tribal leader can calm her down with a few clicks and pops.
- It is all sorted now, and now there is another woman that starts yelling from the other line about what is taking so long, and that she is missing her shows trying to vote. At this point I tell her that she can come back tomorrow and I'm sure there will be less people. She has a blank look on her face, as a few people around us snicker. The girl next to me tells me I'm not nice making fun of people. I tell her that if she isn't that bright, she shouldn't be voting. The girl seems to have taken offence to this, so I turn away.
- I will call the next girl I will talk about Shanaynay, just because that is the name of the character that was on the show Martin... if you don't know, look it up... anyway, so she gets her ballot, and is pointed to a booth by the tribal leader. She walks over, and then calls out to him "Hey you, come here" Now this is a pretty small room, so no reason to yell, but OK. So nbow she asks him "So how I do this thing?" Now as most of you that voted probably know, there are instructions all over, and really, I think that most 1st graders can figure it out, but who am I to judge. So the guy tries to explain to her how to vote... he is being very good about saying things like "a candidate" and "your candidate" And she is being very funny (to me) saying things like "Shit, quit playin' you know who I want" and she actually said that she wouldn't be here if it wasn't for "the brotha." so now the judge pretty much walks her through how to vote for "her candidate"
(in case you want to know, in IL we have a ballot that looks like this:
NAME1 <= =
NAME2 <= =
For you to vote, you draw a line:
NAME1 <===
Anyway...) So now she is asking "what's all this other shit on here" he tries to explain to her that this is an "election" and there are other people running. She proceeds to complain that she is busy, and doesn't want to fill the rest of it out. He tells her that she is free to vote for only the races she wants. She finishes and leaves.
Good times, good times!
posted by 0verfiend at 7:10 PM
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