I'm from Wisconsin, aka the state where morals lost to total silence and effective management lost to incompetence. But while the end of the day was a huge let down, the day overall was wonderful.
Why?
I spent the day working as a DPW poll watcher for a heavily minority, heavily democratic district in Milwaukee County. This was a ward that had under 50 votes in the primary. And it was a ward that I'd have targeted for voter intimidation and caging, if I was an evil immoral... ahem.
Solarian takes a deep breath
And we did have problems with some water spilled on the voting machine early, and those were solved with reasonable quickness.
And we did have the police stop by on BS grounds, but we got names and called it in to legal, and made sure that they understood that we were not going to put up with there actions.
So not an uneventful day. But the good part? 115 first time voters, most of them under 20. Most of whom were sent by their friends to come and vote and then sent in people who they saw throughout the day. I worked with a Wisconsin Voter Protection observer from the neighborhood who kept me filled in about the level of turnout and the surprising amount of youth voting, and the whole polling place cheered whenever someone cast their ballot for the first time.
115 out of over 350 in a place with traditionally low turn out. Despite voting machine problems and the police and the time it took.
So Russ, I'll miss you in the Senate, but you lost being who you are, not who you'd have to be to win. And who you are is why I worked and voted for you in the first place. Thanks though for getting me to that voting station so that I could have a bright spot on the day.