[AGL] clerking at the recent election

[Michael Eisenstadt]

after 14 non stop hours clerking at the recent
voting (no elections to offices, just constitutional 
amendments and some bond issues), I decided
never to do THAT again because of the silliness
of the issue. there was only one issue, amendment
2 outlawing marriage other than between he and
and she. no trannies, no chickens, just he and she.

but i changed my mind after my roommate showed
me a map of all the texas counties in the NYTimes,
all of them one color, except for 1 uncolored 
county in the middle. yep, Travis county voted
against Amendment 2. the rest, the greater unwashed,
voted "for" marriage which seemed/seems to me like 
voting to keep the wheel round or the sky blue.

Texians, except for us locals, were afraid that the gays 
were out to "destroy" marriage. i had always known 
that marriage was a permanent part of the social 
nature of our species and was not amenable to being 
destroyed by gays or other miscreants. The Lege, 
collectively, apparently thought overwise, they 
not having my grasp of social reality.

besides, after the fact, i kinda enjoyed disassembling
the 8 election machines and fitting their legs into 
the spaces designed for them on the bottoms. All
but one leg, which was jammed, disassembled and
i left the election machines reduced to large luggage-like 
plastic boxes on the floor secured by a padlocked 
armored cable through their handles, with one leg
sticking up like a dead bug. one full hour of using 
unaccustomed muscles.

over 650 voters voting in just one precinct was a
great many compared to the usual turnout for 
a by-election. all through the day i thought they
were voting for; actually they were voting against.