I cannot describe to you how I feel. For last few days, I gave the campaign my all. I did phone banking to Missouri and it was an inspiring hour, 15 for Obama, 2 for McCain and those saying Obama were happy and ecstatic and excited to vote for him. Those who said McCain had anger in their voice and I could not any words, in fact, they wanted to hang up. Then, I blogged and responded to request for information on why I got involved with Obama till 4am, and it was also a period in which we had to write a close-out report for Singgalot, and an initial organizing meeting for Vagina Monologues to bring to our community's awareness the issue of sexual violence is not unlike ravaging Mother's Earth.
And there is pressure connected to becoming a virgin pollworker. I figured the best way to monitor Obama election is to be part of the solution of bringing an orderly election in my neighborhood precinct. So, the day yesterday started at 530am, the power was out in my neighborhood bakery till 10am, so breakfast was at McDonalds, and off to the polls. I bought two breakfasts, a Mcburrito and Egg McMuffin, thinking I would have both to sustain me for the entire day, until I had to brave the traffic to go to KSCI-18. I ended up giving my Mcburrito to a fellow pollworker.
From the moment we set up the polls at 630am ( our poll coordinator came late, of all days he has done this for 15 years ), and we rushed to open the polls at 701am. Before we even opened the polls, at 6am, the first voters in line were over a dozen African American voters, young, middle aged and not so young. It was exhilirating to see this. We started the process of voting. I quickly assessed the strengths of my team, and became an adhoc background leader. I asked folks what they want to do, and deployed folks, I took the most difficult job of street indexing voters, and made that the first task. In prior elections that was the second task and it was counterintuitive as it delayed the process. By getting the street index done early and saying the person is in for voting, all the voter does is sign, get the ballot and then vote. What delayed the voting was LA County provided us only five polling booths for 1700 registered voters. Can you imagine the lines that snaked around the Westside Jewish Community Center in the lobby and quickly infuriated folks who are rushing to go to work? Can you also imagine that it was quite cold as it had just rained? In fact, it was pouring but quickly stopped as soon as polls started. So again, we readjusted and moved the voting to the auditorium, another moving back and forth. Mind you, we were supposed to have 9 pollworkers, but only 5 showed up. So, if you have crowds that were non-stopped from 7am to 2pm, and lines not letting up, you would think that would be enough. Nope. An LA county worker comes at around 1pm and stops the process and tells us we are doing it wrong as we gave folks their ballot and it took them quite sometime before they got to the polling booths. Why, because LA County gave us five polling booths, one did not work as it was made inoperable by the auditing of the LA county worker, and even the official given cell phone did not work. Never mind the drama she created. One voter offered to buy us lunch, I gave my $30 to buy my pollworkers lunch. My response to distress is to give more love, in my old age, this works for me. And each time we got a virgin voter, we clapped our hands, we announced it to the group as if we were winning a game, and then our poll coordinator gave each virgin voter a Krispy Kreme doughnut.But you know what saved me from shaking from low blood sugar was my loving husband who walked to the auditorium of the Westside Jewish Community Center and handed me my P-8 juice ( my power and pee juice of parsley, zucchini, bell pepper, carrots, calamansi, apple, grapes, spinach ). Had he not given my power boosting liquid, I was about to lose it.
And of course my daughter comes in to vote early in the morning and quickly gets into a problem: her name does not show up. In a usual problem-solving mode, she tells us she checked she was registered online and then, spots the supplementary voter roster. Hooray, she was on that list. At about 2pm, our Subway sandwiches arrived, but not enough to feed all pollworkers, so I requested folks to share the foot long with others. It impressed the Russian older worker, Raisa who had been volunteering for twenty years and actually in the last primary delayed the lines snaking so long for she could not find the streets where folks lived or actually could not read the street index. So, I gave her the task of giving folks ballots and she liked that so much because she did not have to read. Then, it was time to run to Kababayan LA show at KSCi-18 TV discussing why Obama, why McCain, what the polls showed, how Filipinos voted, why they voted the way they did, and the show lasted an hour. The show progressed but all I could think of are the long lines of voters that I could not help. Even Jannelle said that I was subdued. Yes, I was so subdued, but it was more of a confident position that Obama had won already, when I experienced first hand the turnout of young, disabled, middle aged, and almost all of the 41 neighbors in my street. I like the one hour show as it gave us a chance to discuss the elections more fully. Jannelle does a heroic job of compressing a Rachel Maddow and CNN type of show compressed in one thirty minute show and she succeeded in getting an hour. The TV management has not quite gotten it that her show is important, and prefers to show a fifteen minute of garbage videos instead of featuring more substantive news. The drive home took me an hour in peak traffic, a distance of less than 10 miles. I went straight to the Westside Jewish Community Center, it was now 6pm. I am hungry but no time to nourish myself, as we still had straggling voters, who had their young children in tow, as they are rushing to vote. No one was turned down to vote. Everyone was given a provisional ballot and in that provisional envelope was a chance to give their identifying and validating information. It took us until 915 pm to finally close out the polls, we had to count all the ballots, voided ballots, absentee ballots, provisional ballots, dismantle the polling booths, pack up all the supplies, sign all the paperwork and ship the election paraphernalia to LA County voting station. Our poll coordinator was getting testy when his wife of thirty years could not read fast enough to him. Of course, you know me, I had to intervene. I told him that his wife is helping him, and if I were in her place, I would not be as patient, and instead would say " stop f......g with me. " Whew, he quickly controlled his tongue, he quickly resorted to laughter and sense of humor. And we got the job done. We gave each other a hug and wrote in the roster we want to be a team again next election. When I got home, my loving husband had eggplant omelet for me, roasted okra and steamed green beans with bagoong and kalamansi. Can you imagine how much I ate? I ate two eggplant omelets and all the green beans and okra I could. I was so hungry and quite happy that he prepared us a most nutritious and easy to digest food. Of course, I wanted to stay up and listen to the speech of Obama, I have not yet heard it, only snippets and my bones are still aching. I know I did not leave any stone unturned in getting him elected and I am crying with joy as I listened to Ermena's wonderful voice mail message of watching the election results in Times Square.
And you know what is so good about this win is WE ALL WORKED TOGETHER to make it happen. In every Obama event I created, I sensed folks' optimism, their desire to change. And I am proud to say in my Delacruz family, which includes my husband, my daughter, my son, my brother and sister in law and their two daughters who are virgin voters, we all voted Obama.
And the sad part for me is that my sisters could not vote Obama and were stuck in voting their religion on anti-abortion. At one point, my eldest sister was mad at me, demanding that I fully accept what she sends me about McCain, as she does with what I send her about Obama. And one evening, I responded with no self-restraint, " What you sent me, Ate demonizes Obama and smeared him as Hitler, Muslim and even a monkey. That is not electioneering, that is racism and it is wrong. " I had to repeat that same message in Kababayan LA as my Filipino American community does not acknowledge their unconscious bias. Well, folks I will savor my hard work this coming Saturday with Progressive Chefs Taking it Ba (ra ) ck!! I cannot wait and I am very proud to be an American of Filipino descent and heritage! Yes, we can!! PS: I was supposed to be at Century Plaza Hotel but chose to be with my hubby who gave me play by play rundown of the election results. It is a great morning in California, sun is out and I am getting ready to go to my favorite bakery, La Maison!! But wait, this email was sent to me and it captured all the goodness I feel at the moment:
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