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Well, I voted. This was a little more complicated than usual, because they
moved our polling place, and hadn't bothered to send out a notice about
it. Instead, there were two people--I think unofficial--who had put up
handwritten signs pointing to the new location, and telling people about
it. They said nothing was open until an hour after the legally mandated
starting time.
So, we went down the street, and were directed on our way by two other
people, the first of whom said "it's behind that tree." Past the "beware
of the lion" sign, down a long hallway, and up in an elevator, where we
found less-than-organized poll workers. I walked up to one table, gave my
address, and asked if I was in the right place. The woman said yes, and
started looking for me in the book. By skimming down the entries for
people with names beginning in A. I pointed out that my name starts with
R. When she finally found that, it turned out that no, I was in a
different election district and thus needed a different table. Not having
memorized which addresses go at which table, or even which go at her
table, okay. Not looking it up, careless. Not knowing how to look for a
name in an alphabetical list: this woman is not qualified for her job.
The second table had competent people, and from there it went smoothly,
except that I got distracted by "Delegate to the judicial convention" and
having thought that a neighbor wanted us to vote for him for the county
committee (a party office that was not, in fact, on the ballot), I almost
skipped public advocate, the only office of the lot where I have a
significant preference: Norman Siegel, formerly the lead attorney for the
New York Civil Liberties Union. I picked a comptroller candidate by
elimination after a bit of poking around the web over the weekend: she was
the only one I didn't see a reason to vote against. For D.A., I took the
advice of a high school classmate who posted on Facebook. (I haven't seen
her in a couple of decades, but her reasons made sense.)
This is an off-year primary election, with low turnout, but de facto we're
picking a district attorney today. There may be runoffs for other things,
which will likely get even lower turnout.
moved our polling place, and hadn't bothered to send out a notice about
it. Instead, there were two people--I think unofficial--who had put up
handwritten signs pointing to the new location, and telling people about
it. They said nothing was open until an hour after the legally mandated
starting time.
So, we went down the street, and were directed on our way by two other
people, the first of whom said "it's behind that tree." Past the "beware
of the lion" sign, down a long hallway, and up in an elevator, where we
found less-than-organized poll workers. I walked up to one table, gave my
address, and asked if I was in the right place. The woman said yes, and
started looking for me in the book. By skimming down the entries for
people with names beginning in A. I pointed out that my name starts with
R. When she finally found that, it turned out that no, I was in a
different election district and thus needed a different table. Not having
memorized which addresses go at which table, or even which go at her
table, okay. Not looking it up, careless. Not knowing how to look for a
name in an alphabetical list: this woman is not qualified for her job.
The second table had competent people, and from there it went smoothly,
except that I got distracted by "Delegate to the judicial convention" and
having thought that a neighbor wanted us to vote for him for the county
committee (a party office that was not, in fact, on the ballot), I almost
skipped public advocate, the only office of the lot where I have a
significant preference: Norman Siegel, formerly the lead attorney for the
New York Civil Liberties Union. I picked a comptroller candidate by
elimination after a bit of poking around the web over the weekend: she was
the only one I didn't see a reason to vote against. For D.A., I took the
advice of a high school classmate who posted on Facebook. (I haven't seen
her in a couple of decades, but her reasons made sense.)
This is an off-year primary election, with low turnout, but de facto we're
picking a district attorney today. There may be runoffs for other things,
which will likely get even lower turnout.