Election Observations From One Precinct

I spent Tuesday from 5AM until 7:30PM in the 437th Missouri precinct. I have served in this precinct for 5 elections as an assistant supervisor. My job is to assist voters use the digital touch machines and feed their paper ballots in a scanner/reader. Because my polling location is in a senior living center, we have a lot of seniors come down and vote. Many of them need a lot of assistance, and I have always looked forward to this interaction. Partly it is because this is a way for me to give back to my community and to provide real help to people who want to exercise their right to vote. Another part of it is that I hope that my kindness to these seniors is the same kind of kindness that people in Raleigh, NC show my parents who are of this same age group.

I noticed something interesting yesterday. Because this was a primary election, some offices had several candidates. Between national, state and local candidates and two measures, the digital ballot was 5 pages long. In many cases, the only thing these elderly voters wanted to vote on was Proposition C, this was a statewide measure that essentially boiled down to a Missouri rejection of the recently passed national health care reform. I could sense fear, anger and confusion as senior after senior expressed their displeasure with the overall health care situation. The other interesting thing was it didn't seem to matter if they were a Democrat or Republican voter.

During the day, on election day in November 2008, there was an overall sense of optimism and looking forward. I think voters believed that regardless of who they were voting for, things were on the upswing. Sadly, I saw none of that yesterday. Oh God, your word tells us to honor those in positions of authority over us. Help us to pray for our leaders, and Lord, help us to go about your business of telling the good news of your gospel so that people's lives are changed and renewed. We know that true change will only occur as you are involved in our lives as individuals and in our nation.