A few minutes before the polls close, the chief election judge comes outside [View all]

[struggle4progress]

It's the second Tuesday in May, the date of the primary election here

In the last few weeks, I've really done all I could do to convince people to vote for progressives, so today I'm playing nonpartisan. Our gerrymandered legislature passed quite a few voting laws last years, and changes will continue until 2016. Everybody needs to know the score, and that's why I'm here. I have some nice wallet cards detailing the changes, plus a university-sponsored survey on people's voting experiences, and a way to report problems

Early in the day, I did this in my own town. Now I'm twenty miles away, working the last shift before the polls close

This is the rural south. Partisans hit citizens coming to vote: Can I tell you about my wonderful nephew?

Then we hit the voters as they leave: Can I offer you some information on changes in the voting laws? Did you have any trouble voting today? Would you be willing to take a short survey about your experience?

Not everybody wants the info

No, I think I know about it. I'm the mayor here. A tall man with relaxed manner, comfortably dressed, he offers his hand, which I shake. I apologize for not knowing who he was. There's no reason you should have recognized me. Do you live here in C? I tell him that, no, I actually live in D. Well, then, there's absolutely no reason you should have known who I am

The other fellow working with me is somehow collecting four surveys for every one I collect. I study this a bit, but he's just being himself

Through the last half hour, the partisans begin packing and leaving. On his way home, one comes by to see what I'm doing. He gets my short explanation with a copy of the wallet card. He listens and nods: Keep up the good work

The clouds become orange. The crowd of partisans has dispersed. I move closer to the NO CAMPAIGNING line

A few minutes before the polls close, the chief election judge comes outside and introduces herself to me. I ask how many are still voting. There are none inside. Polls close in two minutes. She's curious what people put on the survey. We've collected about sixty forms, but I really haven't looked at any of them. There are about 300 people collecting this data around the state, and we'll just ship the data off to the university for analysis. So I tell her what I remember people actually saying to me