Primary Focus

This past week has been consumed by the primary election. I worked several days of advanced voting as a poll worker last week, which is offered in our county the week before every election. Then yesterday for Super Tuesday, I worked as a precinct manager. I've been stressing about it for weeks, but our elections office is very good about training their workers and providing support.

My alarm clock was set for 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning, so I had planned to go to bed very early. But I didn't get enough sleep because

(1) I went to bed later than planned, and
(2) at 2 IN THE MORNING Darra decided she had a death wish - she began barking and generally acting as if it was time to wake up for the day, and WOULD NOT STOP.

Facing an 18 hour day on my feet with little sleep would be impossible without caffeine, but I managed it. God gave me energy all day, to the end. (Technically, I didn't feel like "crashing" until today, the next afternoon. Weird.)

My final task as precinct manager at the end of the night was delivering some items to the county office, where they were electronically tabulating the results. There was a huge screen in the room that continually updated the tallies, like C-SPAN (only for our county). Pretty interesting to watch the live updating as precincts reported in.

As I drove home around 9 p.m. (not too late!), I felt that sweeping sense of being a part of history - "my" precinct (not the one I vote in, just the one I managed) results were being counted, added to the others, and reported to the state, then reported nationally.

It was a satisfying end to the day. I'd prayed for a "boring" day, that people would come in, vote, and leave without incident. Prayer answered!

But I didn't want to ruin my nice evening by finding out the Final Results. Saved that for this morning.