Notes From A Poll Watcher

by: BranfordBoy

Tue Aug 08, 2006 at 10:40:31 AM EDT

Overall, turnout seemed light, which conventional wisdom says is good for Lamont. I was surprised that they have alloted less space and fewer voting booths than I'm used to here.

Poll watcher turnout was also light. I was the sole Lamont representative there until I was relived just after ten and I was surprised (quite pleasantly) that there was zero Lieberman presence. I had expected paid LieberYouth to be hurling imprecations at me. Perhaps those rumors of Joe scaling back his GOTV efforts were true.

The only other person there was Evon Malloy, Dan's sister-in-law, a delightful person altogether. We had a great time chatting and being mutually supportive. I didn't have the heart to tell her I'd voted for DeStefano.

I waved to people and said helpful things like, "Hope you vote for Ned." I also ahd fun passing out Kiss buttons, generously supplied by Ctkeith. I also made it a point to call out to people leaving the polls, "Thank you for voting, sir!" If they said, "I didn't vote for your guy" (a few did) I'd say "The important thing is you voted."

My philosophy is to remain cheerful, upbeat, polite, and gracious at all times. After all, we're all Democrats and when Ned Lamont wins, Lieberman supporters will flock to our side. After all, they and the candidate they support do not believe that disagreement on a single issue should preclude fervently supporting a Democrat candidate.

If people stopped by to chat (and a few did) we chatted. One independent who wasn't voting asked why I was supporting Lamont. She said that to be a politician you need to know how to wheel and deal and engage in back room politics and she wanted to know how neophyte Lamont could do that. I told her I disagreed with her on her basic premise, but urged her to seek out Lamont on the campaign trail where she could ask the question directly to him and get an honest answer.

Another gentlemen stopped by to say he had switched from Unaffiliated to vote for Lamont. Still another fellow told us he has personally gotten 20 friends to register. One lady couldn't vote because she didn't realize she was registered Unaffiliated. I got her name and she'll be a Democrat by week's end.

At least two voters made a point of telling Evon that her presence made the difference in their decision to vote for Malloy, which just goes to show that this "simple" job is very important.

If you are reading this before the polls close and can spare a few hours, plug into the campaign and find out where you can be put to good use.

And now to answer the burning question:

Although I made no attempt to do any formal exit polling, the impression I got from positive comments and the number of people who gladly accepted Kiss buttons, the fourth distruct in Branford is going for Lamont by at least 60/40, maybe more.

But you can't extrapolate state-wide from a single precinct and the polls will be open until 8 tonight. So please don't relax your efforts. If you haven't voted yet, do. And bring friends with you.

If you have voted, get on the phone and harrass your friends to do likewise.

If you have the time, volunteer. If push comes to shove, just show up at a polling place and get put to work.