This was my third time working as the inspector for a polling station. It was chaotic and fun as usual. The day started way too early - I had to be there by 6am, so I got up at 5am, packed my car and hit the road. The gate didn't open until 6am exactly, so my workers were waiting outside and starting to panic. We got in and started setting up. At 6:20am, the first voter got in line. We opened at 7am without any glitches. Having only one precinct made the process much smoother. We had the line cleared out by 7:50am. It helped to have a very savvy high school student handing out the paper ballots as the paper booths opened up = she would call out to the line 'Anyone want to use a paper ballot?' and would take the first person who raised their hand. This sped the line up quite a bit. Most people opted for electronic voting. Half the precinct had already voted by mail/early voting, so the stream of voters was steady but not too heavy all day long. We had two people try to bring their dogs in, and one lady with two obnoxious children/grandchildren. We had one person with a political bumper sticker on her stroller, and one wearing a political pin. Both removed them when asked. I had 7 workers (usually I only have 4). This led to a very easy day with everyone able to take 2 one-hour breaks during the day. The two male high school students were very helpful at the end of the day - taking down the electronic booths in no time. No injuries either.
Our last voter was at 7:45pm, we closed the booths at 8pm, and were on our way by 8:45pm. The female high school student followed me in her car as I dropped off the supplies/ballots/electronic bits. That way I couldn't stop on the way and hack into the electronic machine. :-) I delivered everything safe and sound and was home by 9pm. Long day but very worthwhile. Yeah for Mr. Obama, Boo! for California passing Prop. 8
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