Chapter 4 US Election Day Ledger

a life experience The first Tuesday in November is Election Day in the United States.This year is not a general election year, and there are no presidential, federal congressman, or governor elections, so the election is not a hot topic from the media to the public.On TV, the dance keeps on dancing, the horses keep on running, and occasionally political topics appear, either Iraq or the Democratic Party are fighting for the presidential election next year; friends around me are excited that the third episode of "The Matrix" will finally come out tomorrow , engaged in philosophical discussions with bright eyes.

However, as an international friend who is very curious about the U.S. elections and an accountant for the Liberal Party of Montgomery County, I took a day off to have a "close contact" with the U.S. elections. At the same time, I distributed leaflets against the "Open Land" plan.Of course, I am not an American citizen, so I do not have the right to vote or be elected, but the political spirit and the Olympic spirit are probably the same: "Participation is the most important thing"; besides, I have been in the queue for 5 years, and the educated youth who jumped in the queue have fully experienced the poverty of the poor and lower-middle peasants. Life, I also have to experience this American political life.

Election Day this year is November 4.The night before, I checked all the polling places in Montgomery County on the Internet, and found that there were about 400 polling places, densely packed in every part of Montgomery County.For example, the area of ​​Upper Merion, where I live, covers an area of ​​23.34 square miles, and there are 16 polling places in total, with an average of one polling place in less than 1.5 square miles. Voting starts at 7:00 am and ends at 8:00 pm.At about 7:30 in the morning, I came to the polling office closest to my home: "Shangmeiren Elderly Service Center".

There are two tables at the entrance, with some leaflets and signs on display. The left side is for the Democratic Party, and the right side is for the Republican Party.There were two middle-aged women in their fifties and sixties next to the table of the Democratic Party. Many badges were pinned to their clothes, with the words "Democratic Party" or the names of various Democratic Party candidates all on the badges.When they saw me coming, they immediately called me to the table and asked me to get some leaflets.After I took it, one of them graciously opened the door for me, pointed to the flyer and said, "Please vote according to the candidates in this form."

I had to tell her: "I'm not a citizen, I can't vote, I'm just curious, come and see." She froze for a moment, and immediately said, "It's okay. Do you have any questions?" I saw some voters approaching in the distance, and I was sorry to delay her business, so I said, "No, thank you." I walked straight into the lobby of the Elderly Service Center.Following the instructions of "voting", I quickly found the voting room.It was a classroom-sized room, with a row of desks on either side of the door, and four voting machines on display on the other two sides, all covered with huge dark brown cloths to prevent others from seeing the voters' choices.Someone is voting inside.

On the side table is the registration form. Behind the table are two kind-hearted old ladies who greeted me to register when they saw me coming in.I explained again that I was not a citizen and just wanted to come and see. The people in the room froze again.An old lady sitting behind the table on the left said, "So you want to see how the electoral system works?" I say yes." She said, "We can show you the steps before voting, and then..." She said hesitantly to an old man sitting next to the voting machine, "Bob, can we ask him to go to the voting machine and try to vote ?”

I quickly declared, "I'm not really going to vote, I just want to see how you vote." Bob came over, nodded and said, "I think so." The old lady began to educate me: "First of all, you should put away these leaflets." She meant the Democratic Party leaflets I was holding in my hand.I turned to look at the other people in the room, and sure enough, they didn't have any publicity materials on display.The old lady continued: "No promotional material can appear in the voting place. You can see that we are all clean, and we don't have any badges."

I pocketed the flyer and asked, "But you can be a Republican or a Democrat, right? You don't have to be nonpartisan to work here, do you?" The old lady replied: "Yes, but we can't give any hints to the voters here. Others have taken leaflets outside, and they can only read them outside this room. After entering the polling place, they must put them away, and no one else See." Then Bob started explaining the voting process to me.Citizens have to be registered as voters before then, and then register your status here today to vote.He took me to a voting machine that no one was using, and lifted the huge brown cloth to reveal its true colors.

The front of the voting machine is a large plastic board with a table printed on it. The leftmost column is the position for this year's election, the second column is the Democratic candidate, the third column is the Republican Party, and then some independent candidates or third-party candidates.The Liberals didn't have any candidates in Montgomery County this year, so they didn't appear on it.Voters press the names they want to vote on this board, and the votes are recorded.There are also two places, designed for loyal Democrats or Republicans, all the candidates nominated by the party are automatically selected at the touch of a button, which saves the trouble of the - button, but I think, this way The people in the party must trust the party committee very much, which is equivalent to the "fool version".There is also a keyboard at the bottom of the machine. If voters are not satisfied with all the candidates and want to vote for other candidates, they can freely enter their names.

After the eye-opening, I asked, "Where are the voters' own names?" Bob replied, "It's already registered." I said: "I often see statistics in newspapers saying, how many percent of Democrats voted for someone, and what percent of Republicans voted for someone. If voters' own names and parties are not recorded together with their choices Come on, how do you come up with this statistic?" Only then did Bob understand what I meant, and said: "It was a reporter who stayed outside the voting place. When he saw someone coming out, he went up and asked, which party did you belong to, who did you vote for, and then made the statistics. Voters can You can answer, you can not answer, you can even answer false information. As for who someone voted for, no one knows."

Due to the widespread use of electronic voting machines, vote counting is now very convenient and the possibility of fraud has been greatly reduced.Bob explained that after 8 p.m., voting closes and the machines print out the results.He showed me the printed results when they tested the machine in the morning. It was a string of candidates' names, and of course the votes behind each person were zero.Finally, they aggregated the results and counted them, so the people at the polls had no influence on the voting results.At the same time, the memory of the machine is also preserved for future inventory comparison needs. I thanked them and left the polling place.When I went out, I found a seventeen or eighteen-year-old blond girl sitting behind the Republican table, looking very shy.I also took some information from her, and pointed to the table of the Democratic Party and asked her, "Don't you fight?" The little girl giggled and shook her head repeatedly. Two friendship first, competition second After experiencing life, it's time for me to start handing out leaflets.But I feel that since I have dealt with people from the two major parties, I am embarrassed to go back to play, and it seems that there are really not many people here, and there is only one person in about two or three minutes.So I went to another polling place, which was in a synagogue. It is also very close to my house, about 3 minutes by car.This time, I had the experience of stepping on the field in the service center for the elderly. I took the flyer against the "open area" plan, got out of the car and went straight to the church.There was only one table, and when I looked closer, it was the Republican Party, and there were two middle-aged women there.Seeing me coming, the one nearby quickly handed me the materials. I waved the leaflet in my hand and said, "I'm sorry, I'm here to distribute leaflets to the Liberal Party." Without saying a word, she immediately turned around and handed the materials to the person behind me.I was very unhappy and thought: "Why is this person so snobbish?" Unexpectedly, after she sent the person away, she turned around and greeted me with double enthusiasm, saying her name was Wendi, shaking hands and asking my name, And introduced me to her colleagues. Before we finished exchanging pleasantries, another person came over, and she and I stopped talking and competed to distribute leaflets.I was still the same as last time. While handing out the leaflets, I emphasized that the "open land" plan would increase taxes, while they were based in the base area, with sufficient soldiers and food, and sold more than 20 candidates of the Republican Party to voters.I took a cursory look and found that their main concern was the campaign, and they had little interest in the "open field" project that was half-hidden at the bottom of the ballot.It seems that there will be no fight, and both parties have a clear distinction between public and private, so I am relieved. At this time, I saw an old black man standing opposite, holding a flyer in his left hand, and a sign in his right hand, which said the Democratic Party, and a picture tied on his wrist, which was a donkey cut out with the background of the Stars and Stripes (the symbol of the Democratic Party) silhouette.I still have a much better impression of the Democratic Party than the Republican Party, so I went to say hello to him and chatted with him.His name was Ted, and he was as talkative as any other black brother in the world, and the chat never stopped. The first is the self-introduction stage.I just finished saying that I am not a citizen but am interested in American democracy.Ted immediately said, "What, essentially all political systems are the same. They're all about power. The American system is no different than your country's system." You can tell right away that it must be a Democratic Party, and it is a typical leftist cynicism when you open your mouth.Of course I couldn't agree, arguing with him that the difference is still very big.After he learned that I was from China, he was very interested in my history of foreign team jumping. He asked me every question about my history. Especially when he knew that I was in the computer industry, he began to give I talked about a problem with his computer and asked if I knew what was going on.I asked him: "What year is your computer?" He thought for a while and said: "About 20 years ago." I almost passed out on the spot. A computer from 20 years ago, what kind of antique is that?I immediately humbly stated that my knowledge was very limited and I had no clue about his question.He expressed his understanding. I usually don't inquire about other people's privacy, but since Ted asked me all the details, I didn't have to be polite and started to check his account. Ted's history is quite complicated, he has worked in many occupations, but they are basically blue-collar.In the past ten years, I have worked in a bus company, first as a driver, then as a maintenance worker. I just retired a year ago.He used to live in Philadelphia, went bankrupt a few years ago, and moved here. I asked him: "Is this also the first time for you to do this? I had to go to work before, so I couldn't come?" "No. I've been involved in politics since I was 19," Ted said. I was very impressed and asked, "Then have you ever run for office?" Ted said, "No." I secretly guessed that maybe it was because campaigning was a costly and laborious thing, and he couldn't afford it.Ted continued: "When I was 21 years old, there was an opportunity. The Republican Party asked me to join their party and promised me a position as a local leader, but I didn't go." I find it very strange, because blacks have always been staunch supporters of the Democratic Party, how could the Republican Party come to pull him?"Mainly because not everyone is willing to volunteer for politics in their spare time, the Republican Party finds me rare and wants to pull me over," he said. After 9 o'clock, the number of people gradually decreased.In fact, there are not many people here, even fewer than the elderly service center, and only one person comes in four or five minutes.And half of them made it clear that they didn't want any leaflets, or went straight to the Republican table.Among those who were willing to accept the leaflet, some listened to me very politely before putting away the leaflet and going to the church to vote, although I don't know how much they listened to.There are also some people who were not that interested at first, but when they heard the word "tax", they listened to me a few more words.Some of them came out of the polls and handed us the leaflets, saying very politely that we might need them.Of course, I can't help the habit of "not afraid of the worst malice" and speculate that maybe they don't want to go to the trash can. I've been with Ted all the time.Since Ted has a distinctly Democratic banner and I don't have any Liberals, I can't help but think, no one thinks I'm a Democrat, right?The Democrats were actually in favor of the Open Field, and the leaflets people took from me were advocating against the Open Field.However, like the Republican Party, the Democrats pay more attention to the election than the issue of votes. Ted didn't mean to dislike me for being "glorious", but chatted with me more and more happily. At 9:20, I saw no one came, so I went home to rest.It was almost 12 o'clock when I came out again.Because I think that most people have to go to work, and they can only vote in the morning, lunch, and after get off work, so I only come out at these three times. When I returned to the synagogue, I saw a harmonious scene.The Democrats have changed shifts, and another black brother is sitting gruffly at the Republican table, chatting with two Republican ladies.His name is James, and he followed me right away after I passed I warmed up and kept cracking jokes.I didn't understand some of the jokes, but Wendi and the others laughed. I said, "English is not my mother tongue. What do you mean by these jokes?" James asked me, "Where are you from?" I said, "I'm from China." He said, "Oh, I thought you were from your mother!" After that, they laughed together again . Seeing that I was puzzled, James was about to explain to me when Ted happened to come back to change shifts again.James was busy handing over shifts with him, and after he was busy, he said to me: "Come on, ask me 'Where are you from?'" I was baffled, so I had to ask him, "Where are you from?" James chuckled and said, "I'm from my mom." I was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly realized.Wendy smiled and said: "You have to get used to James." It seems that they are very familiar with each other.They added: "We are so used to him that we know every joke he makes." James said goodbye to everyone cheerfully.He'll be back by 4 p.m. for Ted.The two women from the Republican Party watched him go, laughed together and said emotionally: "We love James." Ted smiled and said: "Everyone likes James. He is the kind of person you can never mess with." Man, you can say anything to him." After what James said, our atmosphere became more relaxed.In the morning, Ted and I also said that "the honest do not drink from stolen springs", and would rather stand up and talk about mountains than sit at the table of the Republican Party.Now everyone is no longer polite, and the three parties are sitting at a table, talking about it.The wind was strong at noon, and the leaflets on the table were flying everywhere. Ted and I hurriedly helped them hold them down.Of course, the main reason why everyone holds down the leaflets is not because the leaflets are so precious, but because they are afraid that the leaflets will fall to the ground and make the place dirty. The scene that surprised me the most was: Wendi actually held the list of candidates for the Republican Party.Ask Ted: "Look, is this Steven O'Neill on your list? He's running for judge." Ted looked down and said, "Yes, he's on our side too." I wondered, "Is this person a Republican or a Democrat? How could he be on both lists?" Wendy said: "It's our Republican Party. However, he also won the Democratic nomination." "How would a Democrat nominate a Republican?" Wendi explained: "It's very common. If there is no candidate in the party for a certain position, and the other party has a candidate that we can accept, why not nominate him?" I compared the lists of recommended candidates from both parties, and sure enough, I found another person who was also nominated by both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.This time the candidate is a Democrat. “Every year, a lot of people cross the party line and go to the other side to win support.” Wendi told me.These are the people who are almost certain to be elected. Another issue I am concerned about is the funding of the two parties, probably due to professional habits. After all, I am an accountant for the Liberal Party of Montgomery County. Do I have to do my own politics in my position? Let me investigate first. In today's election campaign, the Democrats, like me, are volunteers who volunteered to help.But Wendi and the rest of the Republican Party get money, 25 yuan a day, and of course they are indeed Republicans themselves.I made a preliminary estimate that there are about 400 polling places in Montgomery County. Assuming that the Republican Party puts one or two people in each place, it will cost $15,000.In other words, the Republican Party’s expenditure on this item alone is more than 10 times the total expenditure of the Liberal Party in Montgomery County, not counting other expenses such as printing leaflets and renting tables and chairs.This comparison really freaks me out.It seems that the Republican Party is indeed richer than the Democratic Party. As for other third parties, it is the order of magnitude difference between Bill Gates and me. I asked Wendi where the funding for the Republican Party came from.She said it was mainly people's donations, and sometimes they went door to door to solicit donations. I said: "Those who are willing to donate to you should have donated long ago. Is it effective to go door-to-door to collect donations?" Wendi said repeatedly: "It is effective, of course it is effective. We go door-to-door to collect donations, and most people will give, including the Democrats." "And the Democrats too?" I thought it was weird.The Democrats agree to nominate the Republicans, and they can also say that they have no candidates themselves, and give the other party a favor, but donate money to the Republican Party, and the money will be used by the Republican Party to oppose the Democratic Party. traitorous people". Wendi said: "Of course, the most die-hard Democrats will not give. However, ordinary Democrats will donate some. The main reason is that they see you asking for donations from door to door and think you have worked hard; everyone thinks that a person When you put in the work, you should get paid. Even though I’m from another party, I come to their door to collect donations, and they usually give it a go.” This statement is of course extremely new to me. Generally speaking, the leaflet distribution at noon is an activity of victory and unity.It seems that even the two-party politics is far from the tight string of class struggle as I originally imagined, but life is the main thing, and politics is the second.We are still neighbors first, and then we are party members with different political opinions.Even if the upper echelons of the two parties battle it out in the media and in Congress, where class struggle seems to be the order of the day, for the less fanatical rank-and-file party members, friendship comes first and competition comes second. Three series Since there were not many people voting at the polls, and I didn't send out many leaflets, I decided to go to neighboring Delaware County in the afternoon to help a Liberal Party campaign there, and at the same time, there were candidates who could clarify Addiction supported. It was a small town called Glenolden, about a 40-minute drive from where I lived.The Liberal Party's candidate, David John, is running for the seat of the Georgia Township Home Rule Council.There are four vacant seats in this parliament this year, and only five people are running for election. Except for David, the other four are all Republicans, so the Liberal Party feels that it has a chance of winning this time.Mongolian Many Liberals in the county came to support him because the Liberal Party is a small party, and it is not easy to win an election. Although everyone has not read Chairman Mao’s Art of War, they still understand the principle of concentrating troops when the opportunity arises. I made an appointment with David on the time and place to meet, and drove there.Since I was in Gezhen for the first time, I couldn't find the place, so I missed the time, didn't even find the right place, and went to another polling place by mistake.There were two little girls who were handing out leaflets for David, but they were so small that they were less than 10 years old. When I asked, they turned out to be David’s niece. I sighed for a while. Fortunately, I soon found out that I was wrong.Their mother was here too, but just went out.And in my afternoon series, I also found that David actually has a lot of staff.I didn't see anything wrong with me here, so I took some leaflets and went to other polling places. There are five polling places in Georgia Township, and I went to four of them.Except for the one I went to just now, I didn’t stay long, and I stayed in the other three places for a while. It’s just that “every village has its own tricks”. The first is at the voting booth at the Fireworks.There was a local Liberal named Geer, who was handing out leaflets with a child.Gale was tall, strong, and cheerful and funny.Because I didn't know much about the candidate, I asked him: "When I distribute flyers, how should I promote David? I mean, what is the biggest difference between David and other candidates?" Geer thought for a while solemnly, and said, "David is the shortest one." This is of course a joke.Joking is Geer's biggest characteristic. Once, a lady in her 30s came, and Geer hurriedly greeted her.But after a few rounds, he was defeated. It turned out that she was a campaigner who came to support the Republican Party.After handing out a few more fliers, Geer suddenly said to me, "Do you think I can date her after voting?" I was busy looking at the lady again.She was dressed like a professional lady, with delicate eyebrows and light makeup. She stood at the door with a smile, and she had the charm of a mature woman.As I was grading her pairing with Geer, Geer had declared, "Haha, I was kidding." "That's good," I said, "then I'll be ahead of you." Geer did not forget to play tricks when handing out leaflets.When he saw someone coming, he would lean close to him and make the sound of mosquitoes flying in his mouth. Sometimes he would twist his waist and say, "Squeak~cheep~ah, I'm sorry, the mosquitoes are here again." Of course the other party knew this. It was he who was joking about comparing himself to a mosquito that harassed people everywhere. While smiling knowingly, Geer had already handed over the leaflet, pointed to David's name on the leaflet and said to them: "Please choose David John , he is the only independent candidate in this election, the others are selected by the 'top', only David is running for the election, his election can improve the independence of the self-government assembly. He represents the people interests, not the opinions of a few party bigwigs." It turns out that Gezhen is the world of the Republican Party. No matter how the self-governing council shuffles the cards, it turns out that it is all Republican.In this year's election, the term of office of 4 congressmen ended. For some reason, the Republican Party decided not to support their re-election and put forward four other candidates.From their point of view, of course they thought that these four people could be filled in, but unexpectedly, David rushed out of the field, so now they are choosing four out of five people, so his chances of winning are not small. After listening to Geer's introduction, I couldn't help but rejoice that the Republican Party underestimated the enemy. If they put forward a few more candidates, wouldn't David be much more dangerous.But from another perspective, it can also be said that the Republican Party firmly believes in its unshakable advantage and dismisses various challenges.Here, the Democratic Party doesn't even bother to mention candidates, because there is no hope of winning anyway, so why waste human and financial resources.It is said that people throw away the leaflets of the Democratic Party as garbage, and they are kinder to the candidates of the Liberal Party.Therefore, the election here is basically just a formality. Everything has been decided in the previous Republican party meeting. It is equivalent to the democracy within the party is the democracy of the whole people. Even, according to Geer, the Republican Party does not even have democracy within the party. , A few big shots took the board down, so he tried his best to emphasize David's independence to the voters. The second is our old friend Kern campaigning for David.He has been here to stand guard at Gezhen at 9 o'clock.When he heard that I started activities at 7:30 in the morning, he also specifically explained that he still had to go around the local area in Montgomery County first, meet and say hello to the local politicians, and then come here to catch up There was a traffic jam during commuting hours, so I didn't arrive until 9 o'clock.As the chairman of the Liberal Party in Pennsylvania, Kern certainly does not limit his attention to the town and county where he lives. David is the Liberal Party member most likely to win in this area, and Kern naturally wants to support it with all his strength. I went to this polling place with David. As soon as we parked the car, two children jumped up and asked him for a "badge". Election badges, the Republicans and Democrats I see this morning are all wearing these things.It turned out that the two children lived in a nearby family. When they came out to play, they were confused by Kern's sweet words (Kern would pinch his throat to imitate cartoon characters, so lifelike that he could be a voice actor), Became a volunteer for the Liberal Party. The two children are black and white. The black one is 9 years old and the white one is only 8 years old. They are pink and cute.David's campaign slogan was "honest, open, and limited government." The white kid couldn't even read the words, but he took David's flyer, stopped anyone who came, and stammered, reciting: "David John, self-governing parliament, honest and open government." The black child shouted, "You have thrown away the 'limited' again!" The two spoke in a childish voice, which was really cute, and made everyone want to laugh. Talk to them a few words, and it will be even harder to reject the flyer.Standing behind the two children, David took the opportunity to shake hands with people after the children performed, and said, "Hello! I am David John, and I am running for a seat in the Autonomous Parliament." Unfortunately, it was getting late, and at 5:30, the children's parents came to take them home.But with Kern guarding this place, we have nothing to worry about.Today, he was dressed in a suit and leather shoes and stood at the door with a handsome appearance. At first glance, he thought he was a candidate soliciting votes.His eloquence and image are excellent, and his campaign experience is rich, so he should be able to attract many voters. The third place is a school, and Jim and Chuck from our Montgomery County are distributing leaflets. Jim is also a very good assistant.David himself often just stood with a smile and didn't talk much. Jim stood at the gate, and when he saw someone coming, he went up to say hello and said, "Do you know David John?" Well, David came up to shake hands and introduced himself: "I am David John, and I am running for a member of the Autonomous Parliament." Jim went on to say: "David is very humble, never boast of himself." Then began to advertise.He mainly emphasized David's spirit of dedication and participation, and introduced that although David was not a member of the Autonomous Council before, he attended all meetings of the Council and made significant contributions to the development of the town; if he is elected, he will strive to make the town Government becomes honest, open, and limited.In the end, it still fell on David's independence, emphasizing that he would really speak for the interests of the people.His eloquence is very good, he can talk endlessly as soon as he opens his mouth, and people will listen politely before going in to vote. With Jim around, we saved a lot of trouble, and the only time Chuck and I got a little business was when someone came along while Jim was pestering someone else.Because we Liberals from Montgomery County have come to support, the activities of the Liberals here are full of enthusiasm, which is completely different from the desertedness in Montgomery County.Everywhere David and I hook up creates a situation where the Liberals vastly outnumber the Republicans, and the Democrats just don't see it. It is still very different whether there are candidates or not, especially David is full of energy, constantly moving between polling places and shaking hands with people.With the "seeing is believing" contact with the candidate, when the voter sees the name on the ballot, he can connect him with the real person, and generally has a significant good effect. However, we all know clearly that Georgia Township is the territory of the Republican Party, and most people will vote for the Republican candidate.When a voter came, he heard that Jim introduced that the other four candidates competing with David were all Republicans, and he said contemptuously: "Huh, Republicans." But most people still have nothing to do with it. We made an introduction, and went to the Republican Party to get some information, but it didn't look like a campaigner who knew the Republican Party. Four from victory to victory Our Liberals in Montgomery County have long planned to have a party in a bar after voting this evening, which is called a "victory party".Of course, real victories, such as the setback of the "Open Land" project, or the successful election of David, everyone knows that the possibility is unlikely, but it can't be called a "review party". We still gathered in the bar happily and watched Watching the election results being reported one after another on TV. The final result was not surprising.There were 104,367 votes (77.64%) in favor of the "open zone" plan, while only 30,057 votes (22.36%) were against it, which can be regarded as a failure with no room for resistance.But considering that throughout Montgomery County, both major parties have called on voters to support the plan, and the only organized opposition is the Liberal Party, which accounts for only 0.3% of the electorate population, this can be regarded as a big victory for the Liberal Party. The same is true of David John's campaign.He lost the election, with four Republican candidates receiving about twice as many votes as he did, but Kern said, basically, there were two kinds of votes, one for all four Republicans and one for just one David, so it was a feat of David one-on-one Republicans, one to two.Since Gezhen is a small place, as long as we mobilize and mobilize more than 100 intermediate forces, such as the Democrats, next time, we can win the election.So it seems that the election campaign will start there in the future.It was suggested that David should run for mayor, since he was now well-known among anti-Republican voters.But Jim was very sympathetic to David, saying that he spent more than 1,000 dollars of his own to run for the election, and the family members spent countless hours, but in the end he still failed, which was a lot of trouble.