Election officials at my polling place yesterday. The emotion was more dread than excitement

[peacebird]

We are evenly split D & R. None were happy as the results were rolling in while we counted and broke down the polling equipment at 9pm.
No one was happy that Trump & Hillary were winning. No one. Even among polling official D's, the top emotion was only "she's better than any of the R's". No one was enthusiastic, and funny enough on BOTH sides the common theme was how on earth did we get here, with THESE candidates as our choices?
Several D's were like me, unable to vote for Hillary in the general. All R's were against her with a white hot hate. One D was saying it would be hard to vote for her, but she probably would.

A number of voters told us they were voting in the R election to try to bring down Trump. In our polling numbers Marco Rubio beat Trump, so that is something I had not seen before.

But no one was enthusiastic about the results. Very odd. We election official types are usually very high on elections, even tho it means a 17 hour day for us usually.

Be nice to your polling place officials - we get there before 5am and generally have it shut down and head home about 9:45pm. Without leaving the polling place all day.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Whoever is not enthusiastic about keeping a Republican out of the WH is either too comfortable

or has no memory.

[Larkspur]

5. Some of us see the Clintons as Rockefeller Republicans, not Democrats

[BeyondGeography]

6. And I read regularly on this board that Obama is less liberal than Nixon

Rockefeller was 50 years ago. The choice will almost certainly be Clinton v. Trump. I have no trouble seeing the difference.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. Well, we know PBO didn't trash gays, Jews, African Americans, and intellectuals in his private...

Well, we know PBO didn't trash gays, Jews, African Americans, and intellectuals in his private conversations.

[BeyondGeography]

9. Still, they're allllll the saaaaame!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. I have read several books about RMN

He really didn't care all that much about domestic politics and he had to work with a Democratic Congress...He was intent on proving he was a foreign policy maven.

That explains to me why he supported some progressive programs; so the Democrats would leave him alone.

[BeyondGeography]

15. Nixonland/Perlstein also teaches how he leveraged racism, hatred and envy

creating the template that Republicans use to this day to divide and conquer. He'd be appalled by his successors on some levels, but he would completely understand and endorse their tactics.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. I read Evan Thomas' book about him which was sympathetic but not fawning.

His anti-semitism was actually stronger than his homophobia and racism, likely because in his tortured mind, he thought the former were his biggest foes. His racism and homophobia seemed casual and reflective of the tenor of the times.

Yeah, he would be appalled by Trump.

[Le Taz Hot]

7. Whoever thinks that this is about party politics is either blind or

just not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. Why do you suggest that Beyond Geography is ignorant because he disagrees with you?

Whoever thinks that this is about party politics is either blind or
just not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. I could not find it in my heart to be nice to our polling place person...

but that's because she had trouble saying Democratic Party and instead chose "Democrat" Party. You are a far nicer person than me. I hope she was stuck there way past time because she is more the HOA-president (has to be in charge) type than the "high on elections" type.

No one here really talks about who they are voting for, so I found your experience interesting. Fights would break out here if people talked about their vote openly. Have a good day, peacebird.

[tazkcmo]

3. Thank you for your work!

You and people like you are national treasures. Thank you.

[peacebird]

4. Thanks! Btw: Dems smile at poll workers much more than Repubs

And the truly scowling ones were R's almost every time. It was odd, but you could frequently guess which ballot you would be handing out before they got to the table....

[R B Garr]

10. Or maybe people were hiding their enthusiasm because they are sick and tired

of the constant anti-Hillary tripe and didn't want to subject themselves to any more abuse. I would certainly do that if I thought being enthusiastic would invite unnecessary scorn and lectures.

[Downwinder]

12. I voted early two weeks ago.

Everybody was pleasant. No lines.No rush. A very enjoyable experience.

Say what you like about Texas, the two week early voting period is quite pleasant. More people should take advantage of it.

[JaneyVee]

13. Which state?