Election Day
After missing the primary, Dave and I were determined to find the polling place this time. It was an elementary school named after my boss's grandfather (small island). We had a vague idea of where it was after asking people, and took a road we hadn't been on, figuring since we hadn't seen the school and hadn't been on the road - they must be together. From there it was actually really easy to find as there were about 100 people outside the school campaigning. In typical St. Thomas fashion, we pulled over and parked on the side of the road, not bothering to worry about whether there was enough space for two cars to get past on the road or whether it was a legal parking place - if your car fits there - it's a parking place!
Then we had to deal with the campaign workers to get inside the school. There were so many of them. Not just standing around with a sign either - people stepped in our path to stop us as we were walking to get in the voters' line and told us for whom we should vote. There was plenty of singing and cheering. It was almost as if this was the Big Game of the year. By convincing us who to vote/cheer for, they could affect the outcome of the game. A book I read gave a similar analogy - explaining that people here care about their senators like people elsewhere care about their big sports teams.
We said Good Morning to the people we joined in line and responded likewise when other voters arrived behind us. It looked like we were going to be in line for a long time but after about 5 or 10 minutes, a message from inside the polling place was passed throughout the line "Any Ns Os or Ps?" We didn't quite get it at first but then someone said if our last name started with one of those letters we could go ahead. It didn't make any sense to us and seemed too good to be true. But with mild apprehension, we left out spot in line and stepped forward, hoping we wouldn't soon be facing a crowd of angry West Indians.
After we entered the multi-purpose room, we realized why our last name mattered. On one side of the room there were multiple tables labeled with letters. The N-P table only had one person in line, whereas the others had long lines. When it was Dave's turn, the first poll worker asked for his voter registration card, and she wrote down Dave's name on a long list of other names. Then she spelled Nielsam to the woman sitting next to her who had a very large binder. The binder had tons of voter records. She found Dave's card, wrote down the date of the election on the back of the card and had Dave sign it. Each card holds 30 years of voter data, listing the dates of each election in which the voter participated.
Once we were checked-in, we stood in another line to actually vote. The voting machines were electronic touch-screens that would light up next to the candidate you picked. I had never voted on a machine like that before, but it seemed fairly easy (and who knows how reliable). After voting, we had to check-out on the other side of the room. The room wasn't very big and there were about 100 voters at any given time along with a few dozen poll workers, so going to the "other side" just meant taking a step or two away from the voting booths. We presented our cards once again and the poll worker printed our names in a large log book, we signed next to our names, and that was that!
I was a little disappointed there were no "I Voted" stickers. I mentioned that to someone at work and she had never heard of such a thing. Perhaps it's because voter turn-out is so high here (I heard about 70%?) they don't need such incentives.
A candidate needs 50% + 1 to win the gubernatorial election (and take "Government House"). If noone gets that much, a run-off between the top two candidates must take place 2 weeks after election day. This year, the top candidate had about 49% and though they were still counting absentee ballots (which are only available to true absentees), they had to plan for a run-off. (By the way, our neighbor, a senator, was the third place candidate.) The run-off took place while we were on our cruise, and we put off getting an absentee ballot until appendicitis struck, so we didn't end up voting in that election. The newly elected governor takes his position on the first Monday after January 1.
Incidentally, our non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives won another term. Her name is Donna Christian-Christensen - born Christian, married a Christensen. Reminds me of how some of my doctors' offices file my records as Kendra Nielsen-Nielsam.
Then we had to deal with the campaign workers to get inside the school. There were so many of them. Not just standing around with a sign either - people stepped in our path to stop us as we were walking to get in the voters' line and told us for whom we should vote. There was plenty of singing and cheering. It was almost as if this was the Big Game of the year. By convincing us who to vote/cheer for, they could affect the outcome of the game. A book I read gave a similar analogy - explaining that people here care about their senators like people elsewhere care about their big sports teams.
We said Good Morning to the people we joined in line and responded likewise when other voters arrived behind us. It looked like we were going to be in line for a long time but after about 5 or 10 minutes, a message from inside the polling place was passed throughout the line "Any Ns Os or Ps?" We didn't quite get it at first but then someone said if our last name started with one of those letters we could go ahead. It didn't make any sense to us and seemed too good to be true. But with mild apprehension, we left out spot in line and stepped forward, hoping we wouldn't soon be facing a crowd of angry West Indians.
After we entered the multi-purpose room, we realized why our last name mattered. On one side of the room there were multiple tables labeled with letters. The N-P table only had one person in line, whereas the others had long lines. When it was Dave's turn, the first poll worker asked for his voter registration card, and she wrote down Dave's name on a long list of other names. Then she spelled Nielsam to the woman sitting next to her who had a very large binder. The binder had tons of voter records. She found Dave's card, wrote down the date of the election on the back of the card and had Dave sign it. Each card holds 30 years of voter data, listing the dates of each election in which the voter participated.
Once we were checked-in, we stood in another line to actually vote. The voting machines were electronic touch-screens that would light up next to the candidate you picked. I had never voted on a machine like that before, but it seemed fairly easy (and who knows how reliable). After voting, we had to check-out on the other side of the room. The room wasn't very big and there were about 100 voters at any given time along with a few dozen poll workers, so going to the "other side" just meant taking a step or two away from the voting booths. We presented our cards once again and the poll worker printed our names in a large log book, we signed next to our names, and that was that!
I was a little disappointed there were no "I Voted" stickers. I mentioned that to someone at work and she had never heard of such a thing. Perhaps it's because voter turn-out is so high here (I heard about 70%?) they don't need such incentives.
A candidate needs 50% + 1 to win the gubernatorial election (and take "Government House"). If noone gets that much, a run-off between the top two candidates must take place 2 weeks after election day. This year, the top candidate had about 49% and though they were still counting absentee ballots (which are only available to true absentees), they had to plan for a run-off. (By the way, our neighbor, a senator, was the third place candidate.) The run-off took place while we were on our cruise, and we put off getting an absentee ballot until appendicitis struck, so we didn't end up voting in that election. The newly elected governor takes his position on the first Monday after January 1.
Incidentally, our non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives won another term. Her name is Donna Christian-Christensen - born Christian, married a Christensen. Reminds me of how some of my doctors' offices file my records as Kendra Nielsen-Nielsam.
posted by Kendra at 10:37 AM
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