Today was a rather emotional day, and no it didnt have anything to do with my Dad, but it was something of which he was well aware -- and it does end positively. It didnt start too well, however. I woke up early today for me on a Saturday. That is, I got up at 7:00 am (normally, if you wake me up before 10:00 am on a weekday you had best be prepared to get an axe stuck in your skull). However, I had to leave the house by 8:00 am to gas up the car and drive to Hanover. Why did I have to go to Hanover you ask? Simple! Today was the recount of the David DeCoste (Republican) versus Rhonda Nyman (Democrat, incumbent) State Representative race in the 5th Plymouth district! As a MassGOP Regional Chairman (Region 5, which encompasses the district) I felt that it was my duty, an honor, to volunteer for the recount efforts. Before I get too far I will say that the recount efforts were successful. David DeCoste picked up 2 votes (a net of 3 new votes to add to his lead on Election Night). Truth be told, I played a very minor role in the recount. There were 4 precincts to recount and I was an vote observer in the 2nd precinct. I was also in the bullpen for precincts 3 & 4, but my services werent necessary. However, I was at Hanover Town Hall from 9:30 am until 4:00 pm. Why was the day emotional? Well, as Ive said before -- although I dont exactly talk a lot about it, or really have a reason to, but I was born 95% deaf in both ears. Ive had 18 ear operations, including 2 artificial ear drums. As such, on a good day I have average to good hearing but due to allergies, colds, and just life in general my hearing comes & goes and I have relatively few good days. Indeed, Ive gone months with near total hearing loss, especially in one ear or the other. Ive told some of my friends involved with King Richards Faire that I absolutely love the pub & sea shanty sings, but often I really only hear the tune and cant really understand the lyrics (btw - theyve been awesome helping me learn the lyrics!!!) Just one example from the the past is that my hearing problems have caused me (at least in part) to quit playing Santa Claus after having done it for approximately 8 years since well... if I cant hear the children, or have a very very hard time hearing them its both useless and frustrating. Speaking of frustrating, it was extremely so as well as demoralizing and depressing when after getting prepped for the recount I sat down in the gallery await my shift (they were counting precinct 1) and all I could hear was an indecipherable cacophony of noise. It was as if I was sitting in a fish bowl with a white noise static machine, cranked up with the volume as high as it could go. Truth be told, more than once I went into the mens room on the verge of tears as I was so upset. Im used to asking people to repeat themselves and yes, Im pretty good at reading lips. Its also not as if I havent mastered the smile and nod technique when I have no clue what some people are saying. Its true, I do tend to shy away from phone banking & door knocking in politics due to my hearing issues (and this may be the first time that Ive publicly admitted that fact), but for some reason today the being driven crazy by the apparent inability to participate in the recount really hit me. I felt shattered. It got to the point that I pulled one of the recount directors aside, Benjamin F. Keilman, and told him about the problem. Actually, I had typed out a text message to both Ben and Rob Cunningham explaining privately that while I was there for the duration of the recount, and I wanted to help out in any way possible, that I wasnt sure to what extent that I could be useful. Ben and I briefly discussed the matter and we determined that while it may be difficult for me to record the vote tally, that I may be able to successfully be a vote observer. I was more than a little nervous as I didnt want to screw it up on account of my hearing impairment. However, they needed the second shift to jump in for Precinct 2 and well I put on my Republican Agent name tag on and jumped in to get in the game. Im happy to report that I had absolutely no problem at all hearing the official town vote counter for that table. We went through several ballot packets, each containing 50 ballots each (and one packet had to be recounted twice due human error) and I wasnt a liability to the campaigns recount efforts. In fact, after the lunch break I told Ben that I felt confident that if he needed me to be a vote tally recorder that I felt that I would be able to do so. While the background noise was horrible, working with the vote counters in close proximity was not a problem. Perhaps its a good thing that my services were not required for Precincts 3 & 4, but while the day started off on a very negative note, it ended positively. I know Ill neglect to mention someone, so I apologize in advance, but it was great to see some other MassGOP friends, aside from the aforementioned, who were in attendance and helping out with todays recount efforts. These great activists included Mark Townsend, Gordon C Andrews, Tony Staci OBrien, Janet Fogarty, Peter Buckley, Jared Valanzola, Chris Lane, and Ed McGrath
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 23:52:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015