Election, Quilt Show

I don't know how this got started, but I am an election judge. That title sounds important, but all I do is help people voting at the polls. There are various stations at a polling place, where we check people in ("Are you Registered?"), hand out ballots, answer questions, explain the ballot, and made sure they put the ballots into the recording box properly. I don't mind it, except it's an extremely long day. Polls open at seven and it takes about an hour to get set up, which means we have to be there at six; and they close at eight, and it takes another hour to take everything down and run the count, which means we stay at least until nine. It all must be done according to a lengthy, important list and we're all amateurs, which is why the setting up and closing down takes a long time.

Am I complaining? I suppose I am, but I'm also glad to get this glimpse of behind-the-scenes, how-it-works in elections. It's an honor and an important part of living in a democracy to be able to do it -- but it is a very long day. Just two hundred and twelve voters turned out in this off-year election, out of a possible thirteen hundred registered in the precinct. Last year brought out a huge number and we registered over two hundred new voters.

One thing that means is I am writing this on the fly again, so again I apologize for the disorganization, if any, of my post. Boy, two weeks in a row of disorganization!

Last Wednesday and Thursday I was in Des Moines at their Events Center, attending a big quilt show. Linne Lindquist's booth, The Craftsman's Touch, hosted me. My hat was a success -- I'll try to post a picture of it. It's a pilgrim's hat with feathers, meant to suggest a witch's hat. One seemingly minor thing that happened lingers in my memory. A young woman came to the booth and bought a number of books with quilt patterns in them. She was having a good time, she really liked the books, she and Linne talked and laughed while she way paying for them -- not that unusual. But our booth was at the end of an aisle and the wall across from it had a row of folding chairs so people whose feet were giving out could rest for a little while before continuing the search for the perfect gadget or fat quarter or pattern. On one of the chairs was a young man whose whole attention was fixed on the young woman. The sweet fondness of his expression, his obvious delight in her pleasure was like a lit candle in a dim room. This wasn't a noisy, newly-wed delight, there was depth and understanding in it. They weren't having fun together; she was wholly invested in the show, he was pleased to see her enjoying herself. He joined her after she finished her purchases, she took his arm, and they continued up the aisle, and I smiled after them for several minutes. What a joy it was just to be in their company for that brief while!

Monday night I gave a talk at a suburban public library -- Westonka Library in Mound -- and the turnout was surprisingly great for a weekday night. Lots of the attendees had actually heard of me and wanted to know more about my books and the characters in them. The woman who runs the library did a great job of letting people know about my appearance. I am ashamed to say I forgot my hat. They asked me to bring books to sell, and I was so busy filling a case with them and getting it down to my car I forgot to wear my great new hat. What's interesting, is that several of the attendees know about my hats were were disappointed. If any of you are reading this blog, now at least you know what I should have had on my head.

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.