Voting in Maine

It’s almost 11pm and I’m beat—but what a day! I was at the Riverton School Community Center off Forest Ave in Portland, Maine from 6:45am till 8pm helping register voters. This was my first experience on the ‘other’ side of the table, and we were busy! Several of my co-workers were veterans of past Portland elections and by mid-morning they said we’d already seen more voters come through the doors than they’d seen in an entire day at past elections.

As far as registering voters, we got slammed. We didn’t keep track but there were hundreds of new voters, new-to-Portland voters (from as far off as Utah and Texas), lots and lots of new citizen voters from Cambodia, Viet Nam, Sudan, Somalia, Poland, and who knows where else. Also lots of 18-25 year olds registering and voting for the first time. Tremendous excitement and enthusiasm. One of my co-workers mentioned that she signed up a 54 year old woman who had never voted before in her life.

Final thoughts before I keel over from fatigue:

1) From the reports I’ve read and heard, what I saw today was repeated all over the country. The real winner of this election? Us—the voters of America. Well done!

2) And even though I’m dog-tired and stiff from sitting for so long, I’d do it again. The people I helped today were excited, appreciative of our help, eager to register, eager to vote, and just great to meet and be around.