Thawing but proud

My fingers have barely thawed enough to type this post. I just got home from working the polls from 6:30am until 8:30pm with a break of a few hours in the afternoon. I stood outside and greeted voters through bone-chilling temperatures, wind, snow, sleet and rain. There were icecicles hanging down from the hood on my poncho.

I love our country!

There were a lot of people supporting my candidate. Some supporting the other guy. And some undecided. I feel pretty good that I swayed at least a few of those. But the bottom line is that they all came out in that same weather and voted. People came at 7am before going to work. One woman came at 8am after working all night. Moms came with two and three kids in tow. People came after a 2 hour commute home through horrible weather.

And no matter how they voted, I made a concerted effort to thank every single person who left the polls. I cautioned them to drive carefully and waved as they drove away.

Sure there were some small problems with the polls. The election judges wouldn't give me the count of ballots cast. Even though I followed proper procedure and even told them the page number in their election manual that says that I am allowed to ask the count and unless there are extraordinary circumstances they should give it to me.

But overall, it was a great day for democracy in our country.

And I am proud to have been part of it.