Election Day - Almost like Home
Now that the election I have no need to rush to the office to check the Gallup tracking poll.
In 1974 we were in Indonesia when Nixon resigned. People went out of their way to find Americans and congratulate them. Yesterday seemed similar. Early in the day I would run into staff members who were receiving SMSs reporting the electoral college count. Later in the day people would pop out of their offices to ask if I had heard Obama's victory speech.
During the campaign I was happy that no results would be report until Wednesday morning (Malaysia is 13 hours ahead of the East Coast). Still I woke up several time during the night and turned on CNN. I know that there is no value in hearing about lines at voting stations, but it is addictive. As the result tricked in I decided to take a break, go to my office, and check my e-mail. Even though I had had mixed success in connecting to a US network on-line I gave it a try. I was immediately successful. When the California polls were about to close I headed back to my room (less distracting) and a bigger screen.
Once the election was called I heard from Doug, Brendan, and Lina (Malaysian). Brendan had the longest day. He did line management in Indiana. He said that when he arrived at the polling station at 6:15 a.m. people were snaked around the building. His assigned precinct had one clerk whom Brendan judged to be none too competent. Next they (the Obama volunteers)step were able to have the powers to be divide up the registration list. A seemingly easy task that went awry. Eventually they got other help and verified that all the pages of the registration lists were in tact. Two lessons - democracy on the ground isn't always pretty and without the armies of volunteers the day could have been very frustrating for voters. I will leave it to people's imaginations to decide other possible costs of not having volunteers.
So while I am half way across the planet I am sure that my emotions are the same as if I was in the US, but I missed all the ads, which was surely a benefit.
Apparently the opposition in the Malaysian parliament was stonewalled yesterday and were unable to ask parliamentary questions. But my attention was elsewhere. So tomorrow I can catch up with Malaysian politics.
In 1974 we were in Indonesia when Nixon resigned. People went out of their way to find Americans and congratulate them. Yesterday seemed similar. Early in the day I would run into staff members who were receiving SMSs reporting the electoral college count. Later in the day people would pop out of their offices to ask if I had heard Obama's victory speech.
During the campaign I was happy that no results would be report until Wednesday morning (Malaysia is 13 hours ahead of the East Coast). Still I woke up several time during the night and turned on CNN. I know that there is no value in hearing about lines at voting stations, but it is addictive. As the result tricked in I decided to take a break, go to my office, and check my e-mail. Even though I had had mixed success in connecting to a US network on-line I gave it a try. I was immediately successful. When the California polls were about to close I headed back to my room (less distracting) and a bigger screen.
Once the election was called I heard from Doug, Brendan, and Lina (Malaysian). Brendan had the longest day. He did line management in Indiana. He said that when he arrived at the polling station at 6:15 a.m. people were snaked around the building. His assigned precinct had one clerk whom Brendan judged to be none too competent. Next they (the Obama volunteers)step were able to have the powers to be divide up the registration list. A seemingly easy task that went awry. Eventually they got other help and verified that all the pages of the registration lists were in tact. Two lessons - democracy on the ground isn't always pretty and without the armies of volunteers the day could have been very frustrating for voters. I will leave it to people's imaginations to decide other possible costs of not having volunteers.
So while I am half way across the planet I am sure that my emotions are the same as if I was in the US, but I missed all the ads, which was surely a benefit.
Apparently the opposition in the Malaysian parliament was stonewalled yesterday and were unable to ask parliamentary questions. But my attention was elsewhere. So tomorrow I can catch up with Malaysian politics.
posted by Liz at
2:27 PM
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