Me, the Election Official!

I was an election "judge" in Minneapolis on Tuesday. That means I got to sit at different stations in the big room in Ward Seven, Eleventh Precinct while people came in to vote. I checked people in, helped people register, watched the machine where people inserted their ballots, and handed out "I Voted" stickers. Turnout at first was very heavy. It’s a mixed precinct, everyone from welfare moms to businessmen, students to senior citizens. I was surprised at how many had to re-register until the Precinct Captain told me that it’s a part of town where many people are "just passing through," and others are still finding themselves, and so they all move a lot. One young woman came in with her small dog, but animals are not allowed in the voting area. We weren’t busy at the time so I volunteered to sit out in an outer room and hold the little animal for her. She was a mixed breed dog, quite small, the kind with long, unkempt-looking gray-black fur. She sat very quietly, barely acknowledging my words or strokes. Then her mistress appeared, and she became a wild thing revealing, I think, how anxious and unhappy she was over the separation – but too gently-bred to growl and sulk over her absence. A good little dog.

Entries in my find a boyfriend for Betsy have dropped off sharply, and I’m tempted to call off the contest early. I’m at a part of the book where he needs to appear and it’s hard writing around him. But I said November 15, so I guess I should stick to that date. It’s going to be hard to choose, there are some really great entries. Once in awhile I will get an entry that is obviously part of a story the writer has thought about, and those people I encourage to go ahead and write the story – even the novel, if it appears complex enough. There are web sites on which a writer can try out a story using some published author’s vision – Star Trek fans are legendary for stories set in that world. But it’s possible to write a story set in Betsy Devonshire’s Excelsior, too. I’d love to read a story told from Godwin’s point of view. Also such exercises can be a step for a budding author to get his or her very own original story published.