A bird's eye view
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Feb 17, 2008 Posted by Janet Myhre
Gunston Precinct - 616 - As told by: Dolores Moseke
Our day started about 5:a.m. loading our tent, table, kerosene heater
and signs into the pickup. The night before all the food, candy, and
drinks had been put into the car. The drive is only about a mile so it
didn't take great effort to get there and begin setting up the tent. By
5:45 the parking lot was filling up so I removed all of the cones placed
there the night before. The school had alerted the teachers that the
kiss and ride part of the parking lot would be needed for the voters.
It was a cold dark morning and the early voters only sought the warmth
of the school. There was no chit-chat.
As the sun tried to make itself known, the gray sky shut it down and we
huddled closer to the kerosene heater. The stream of voters kept coming
and the election judge commented to Al that she thought Gunston was a
Republican precinct but all anyone asked for was Democratic tickets. At
the end of the day nothing had changed, it was still a heavy Democratic
voting precinct.--618 Democrats to 263 Republicans.
About 8:30 all hell broke loose. The school buses pulled into the kiss
and ride area, the parents tried to drop off their kids, all the cones I
had removed now gave the teachers the green light to park in the lot.
The principal came out to direct traffic, the little ones were helping
themselves to the candy, the voters are trying to figure out how to get
to the door, where to park. After lots of shouting, the parents
disappeared, the kids got to classes and finally the parking lot looked
filled with voters. The little ones marched into school singing Obama.
No. Hillary, Obama. No. Hillary.
We signed up Mark Warner folks, talked a blue streak, dealt with the
sleet, snow, cold and were glad that we had made our presence known. We
visited with the Republicans who usually man the table but they were
just not up for being in the cold. We had 4 curbside voters and some
elderly that we escorted into the gym. Senator Gartlan and his wife
were glad that they could take advantage of curbside voting.
By the end of the night, I was pretty sure that my neck had frozen in
place. I am happy to report that is not the case. Our 121 names for
Mark Warner have all been notarized and we are ready for the next phase
of this election.