What Will Be Different After Tuesday?

This year I am working at the polls. Here in California we have “early voting,” which means we have polling stations that are open before Election Day. Voters can come in and fill out a ballot in person, or drop off a ballot they already received in the mail.

Those of us working get a chance to brush up on our skills from the last election, get to know one another if we haven’t met before, and reacquaint ourselves with the security procedures that ensure ballots aren’t tampered with.

Democracy in Action

This is the very definition of democracy to me. I take voting seriously. I’ve voted in every election since I because eligible to vote. It may be cheesy, but I get goosebumps filling in those bubbles, then sealing and signing my ballot envelope.

Before we had all the instant results, I used to go to bed knowing I would have to wait until the next day to learn who had won. There was that expected lag that, frankly, I miss.

Ever since Hillary lost, I have found myself putting the pundits on mute so that I am not subjected to the endless nattering about which gerrymandered district had six left-handed people submit ballots obviously filled out by a balding, right-handed former Christian jihadist.

It’s All About Winning!

Now the not knowing is almost unbearable. The pundits are more like Las Vegas oddsmakers consulting with the statistics nerds who calculate probabilities, compare them with past results, and feed them into a computer program that creates the visuals on a strange touch-screen map that changes color as the counts come in.

It all looks very impressive, but the actual counting of the ballots is still done by people, assisted by machines, without the distraction of ads every 12 minutes and smiling on-air experts telling us, “Stay with us – we’ll be back in a minute!”

And in some cases, the actual winner isn’t declared until all the votes are counted, long after the on-air talent has left the building and gone off to the after-show party. This is hard on those of us who are impatient and hard on those whose races are close.

Post-Election Blues

Once the election is over, I will be incredibly grateful not to have to constantly block texts begging me for money, recycle election mailings, and, especially, listen to any more attack ads on TV.

I will still have to listen to the pundits’ election post-mortem, but only until they bird-dog some other click-bait distraction involving election fraud, a sex scandal, or new construction in the nation’s capital. But I can manage that while playing games on my cell phone.

Changing of the Guard

The newly elected officials will be busy putting together their staffs, getting introduced to the folks who actually run our government (the village, town, city, county, state, and federal employees), and finding their way through all the paperwork associated with taking office.

Those who were not re-elected will begin to dismantle their lives, transition back into being “just another neighbor,” and go through a period of adjustment in which they learn they really aren’t all that important.

And the rest of us will go back to our lives.

What Will Be Different?

Here’s the thing. The people in our lives whom we’ve been talking about, making fun of, arguing with, hating, loving, embracing, and celebrating with on Tuesday will still (God willing) be with us on Wednesday.

The same problems the candidates promised to fix will be with us on Wednesday. The folks we shared stories with while standing together at rallies, marched with in protests, and wrote postcards with in dining rooms are still there.

Our reasons for arguing, disagreeing, and, yes, hating, haven’t changed. But maybe we have.

Elections Change People, Not Just Offices

I can say, without any evidence to prove it, that there is a 16-, 17-, or 18-year-old out there who has found their passion in politics. Maybe they were inspired by a candidate, or maybe they fell in love with a fellow protester when they discovered a shared commitment to changing the world.

I can say, without any evidence to prove it, that decisions were made that affected families – some for the better and some for the worse. Neighbors got together to bring food to other neighbors who feared going out in case they were picked up by ICE.

Experiments were tried to bring new ideas to old ways of doing things – experiments that failed gloriously but left those involved with new allies and friends and a determination to keep on trying.

Waiting for the Spring Thaw

It’s the wrong time of year to talk about a spring thaw, but the image works for me – it’s been a while since hope has been part of our politics. Greed, corruption, incompetence, and dissolution all seem to have taken over what was once a vital, productive way of governing.

But I now see a thaw. I see evidence of new life. I feel it in the air. People have become involved in their communities again. Some of realized how disconnected they were before and are reaching out, however tentatively, and joining in movements that have sprung up.

It’s still too soon to tell if things will actually change, and I am sure we are in for more disappointments, but I am optimistic.

I’m Old Enough

Why am I optimistic?  Because I’m old enough to remember the dark days (to me) when Richard Nixon left office in disgrace. I remember when the 2008 bank bailout shook the economy. I remember (although I wasn’t anywhere near voting age) marching on Washington to end the war in Viet Nam. If my memory stays intact, I will remember these dark days, too. Through all of this change, the constant was knowing an election was coming up.

The most important thing about elections is that we come together using a process that allows change to happen. My job now is to take this example and work together with others in my community to rebuild trust, re-establish connections, and repair the wounds that exist. Let’s keep doing that until the next election.

Tuesday is the Day!

If you haven’t already, please, please, please VOTE!