Virginia held a special election yesterday to approve or disapprove new congressional districts, created primarily in response to the Republican redrawing of Texas districts to pick up new seats. For me, as a local elections official, this meant another big day working at my polling precinct (fortunately, it's at my old elementary school, a short distance up the road). Especially for an aging dude like me, it's pretty grueling. Up at 4:00 a.m. to be at the site by 5:00 a.m.; get the polling area all set up (we did some of it the day before); open at 6:00 a.m., work until 7:00 p.m., with a brief lunch break midday; and then break down/repack all the equipment, as well as tabulate/sign off on all the results. This means getting home a bit after 8:00 p.m.
It was a busy, busy day, with at least three times as many voters coming in as in the previous elections I've worked (about 650 at our precinct). The redistricting issue was the only one on the ballot, so at least tabulating and reporting the results weren't very complicated. There were two hardware snafus during the day (these seem almost inevitable on Election Day), but fortunately, they were relatively brief inconveniences. Oh, and one unhinged fellow who clearly wasn't a registered voter who had a little fit when we wouldn't allow him to vote without going through the full registration/affirmation of identity/provisional ballot process.
Having been on the other side of the voting booth, it's safe to say that while I'm not a fan of making voting difficult, I'm certainly a proponent of requiring a valid ID to vote. It's sensible and practical. No, not in the way the SAVE Act proposes. There's too much potential for disenfranchisement in the terms of that proposal. What we currently have in Virginia is absolutely sufficient.
I don't have it in me to editorialize on the results of the election, other than to say that what's good for the goose is good for the gander. I hate gerrymandering, but when one party starts using it so blatantly to gain an advantage, you cannot be surprised—or legitimately disapproving—that the other does so only to even the playing field. You start cheating, and cheating comes back to bite you.
At least in Virginia, the voters approved the measure. In other states, it was foisted upon them. That said, however the election might have turned out, I am happy to have been part of the democratic process that functioned exactly as it should. By the way, if you believe Trump's typical, unhinged rant about how the election was rigged, I have one question for you: How is the air there on Planet Moronica?
