Commentary
On Nov. 4 I witnessed democracy. I worked as an election judge. Finally, I was one of those little old ladies who sit at the polls pointing to your name in the registration book, reminding you to completely fill in the circles on your ballot and handing out the “I Voted” stickers. There is a lot more to it. We had to balance the numbers of optically scanned forms with the number of receipts and the number of signatures to keep everyone legal. Absentee ballots required two judges to process them, ensure confidentiality and feed them into the voting machine. New registrations had to be counted and spoiled ballots had to be tabulated. There were time-consuming checks and balances, with a paper trail, that gave me great faith in Minnesota’s election process.

The best part of the system was day-of voter registration. Although it was a time-consuming paperwork process, it meant no one missed their opportunity to vote. The 80-year-old guy who had been dropped from the rolls because he hadn’t voted in the last couple of elections could re-register without too much grumbling. There were no arguments with people whose names, for whatever reason, did not show up on the voting rolls. They walked over to the registration table with proper identification, reregistered, and had their vote count. No person, political party or computer error could cause problems with our voting register because these issues could be fixed on Election Day. That keeps us legal.

There were memorable moments. I got to meet neighbors I have been waving and nodding at for years. One young boy, about 9, was helping his dad vote. He was disappointed when he calculated that he would be almost 22 years old before he could really vote in a presidential election. There was an elderly man who came alone. He was immaculately dressed in a suit and tie and although he walked with difficulty, very slowly, you could tell he would never miss an election. This was his solemn duty. The young 18-year-olds were dressed quite differently, but they were prepared, serious and respectful of the system. An older couple from Russia left giggling. They said they had really appreciated 26 years of living in the United States, but that voting for all those judges with no opposition reminded them of voting in the Soviet Union where none of their candidates ever had opposition. Other brand new citizens beamed as they told us how proud they were to participate in their first election. They spent a long time with their ballots and probably voted for every one of those unopposed judges, just because they could.

Other voters weren’t quite as prepared. A few asked where Congressman Jim Ramstad’s name was on the ballot as they did not know he was retiring. Some wanted to vote for, or against, Michele Bachmann but she doesn’t represent this district. Others couldn’t find “that tax increase” provision since they didn’t understand it was the Constitutional Amendment. In another conversation, someone admitted that she did no research on the lesser offices and just voted for a nice looking name. When her neighbor told her that one of the candidates for the Soil and Water Conservation District was running on an anti-gay marriage platform, she was embarrassed. We laughed. Do fish get married?

Only one man was openly hostile. He left the voting area asking us what “those people” were doing, referring to a group of immigrants in the lobby. When we told him they were registering to vote, his face grew red and his voice got louder reminding us that you had to be a citizen to vote. We explained they were applying and if they had all the appropriate documentation, they had the right to vote. Someone else spoke up, siding with him about changes in the precinct, stating that voting is a privilege, not a right. At that time I wished the elderly Russian couple, the wide eyed new citizens, or some of those 18-year-old high school kids would have been there. They have studied the constitution and probably could have set them straight.

At midnight, after we compared the number of regular ballots, the newly registered voters, the absentee voters and the military overseas ballots and balanced them to our signature logs and the paper printouts of our scanning machine, I left with a new appreciation of our democracy. I was grateful that Minnesota has one of the best voting systems in the country. I was proud that we had an 80 percent participation rate in our precinct. Not every voter appreciates our messy democracy, but we have enough responsible voters to allow it work. It was a privilege, not a right, to be part of it.

Rochelle Eastman is an Eden Prairie resident.