Election Angst

... totally separate from the question of how our man Obama will do tonight (I was hoping for an across-the-board blowout, but I'll settle for stalemate -- for now). I had been scheduled to work as an 'Inspector' for today's primary election -- basically, the guy who runs the polling place, directing the other volunteers (a job I'd previously performed in 2005 and 2006). That was before my company announced that it would be holding its "Technology Summit" -- a gathering of its worldwide engineering staff, held every few years near corporate HQ in San Jose -- the week of the election. Wanting to do the right thing, I followed directions and called my 'Field Representative' at the Registrar of Voters a month ahead of time, leaving her a message (I never could reach her, just her voicemail) giving my name, precinct number, and a message that I had an unavoidable business commitment and would be unable to work the election. (I tried calling the Registrar of Voters' main hotline number, but got voicemail there, too -- at 3:30 on a weekday afternoon!) I never got a response, but I figured that the field rep was just busy ahead of the election -- and besides, given that I wouldn't be attending the mandatory training or picking up my precinct's election materials, they'd definitely figure out that something was amiss even if my messages never got through, right?

Cut to 6 AM this morning, which is when Shelby got a confused call from someone at the election site, wondering when I would be showing up and whether I had the ballot box. Oops!

I wonder what the penalty for election-worker absenteeism is. Let's really hope that I don't end up doing jail time or paying some kind of massive fine thanks to the fact that the Orange County Registrar of Voters is run like a clown show ...