Election Volunteering: Holding the Fort Down

Today I volunteered outside the polls at the city voter registrar’s office, handing out Democratic sample ballots and providing candidate information to early voters.

Well, theoretically that was what I was doing. In reality, I spent most of the time throwing my arms over all the sample ballots and other papers on the table to keep them all from blowing away in the high winds that were whipping through the city all afternoon. It’s a good thing we had two of us there most of the time (or could press a Democratic candidate into helping us through the gusts). We generally needed one person to speak with voters and one to keep our voter materials from flying away.

Despite the less-than-idea weather conditions, I’m glad I went. This election is incredibly important. Our city School Board and City Council races may set the tone for the future of Alexandria. And the Virginia governor’s race has enormous national implications. If you’re a Virginia voter and have not voted yet, please get to the polls as soon as you can, or make a plan to vote next Tuesday, on Election Day.

Rocks, chunks of brick, a water bottle, phones, and anything else we had in our bags was pressed into service as paperweights to keep brochures, sample ballots, and the precinct map from blowing away outside the Early Voting office today. Sometimes they blew away anyway, and had to be chased down.

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