Election Night

Around 6pm the returns started coming in. I was at the Penn Forest office. There were four volunteers there and we were all working the phones. I had my browser pointed to the New York Times electoral map. The exit polls were showing Obama with a breath taking lead. I got up and stood in the archway to the back office where everyone could see me and made an announcement:
"Ok, now we all know that exit polls can be deceiving but The Times is showing Obama winning 64 percent to McCains 33."
Everyone cheered.

I went back and sat at my desk. I looked at the map and blinked. I looked hard. I had gotten it exactly backwards. Not only that Indiana, our candidates home state was turning pink. Indiana. McCain was slaughtering Obama. I felt an emptiness in my stomach like a black hole and it was sucking the universe out of me. The mood was so light. Everyone was so cheerful I didn't have the heart to tell them. Donna came over to my desk.
"I'm going to eat the leftovers you want some?" She asked gaily. My hands were trembling. My forehead was hot and sweaty.
"No, I'm ok. The race is tightening up." I managed to squeak.
"What time are we going to quit calling?"
"Are orders are to call until 8, after the polls close we standby in case we have to call Nevada or something."

For the next hour I could barely press the buttons on the phone. When I tried to speak to voters I felt like screaming at them. They had all betrayed us. They had all lied. They were all lazy. They were racists. I was lazy. I hadn't done enough. It was my fault. Mine. Mine Mine. I wanted to smash the phone deep into my eye.

Everyone else was laughing and chatting in the other room. Then around 7:15 or so dared to look at the electoral map again. I realized that I had mistaken Kentucky's returns for national returns. Then I saw that I had confused Iowa with Indiana. Indiana was blue. It was Iowa that was pink. Then Texas and Florida began to turn a faint blue. A rush of relief flooded through me. I began zipping through the phone calls. We reached a lady who had hit a deer. Her car was disabled and she couldn't drive to the polls. I googled her address and printed out a map. I sent one of our local volunteers out to go get her. It was ten to eight and everyone was still calling. I told them they could quit anytime and nobody did. We were on a mission. At one minute to eight I dialed another number.
"You never know." I thought. "They might live right next to their polling place and forgot or lost track of the time or just need one little more push."

By eight things were looking good. I called the field organizer to report in.
"Fox already called to for Obama." she cheered.
Fox. The evil empire and they were bowing to the negro god. We lounged around the office, watching the Internet. listening to NPR. Then we packed up and headed back to Jim Thorpe.

My cell phone kept going off. I was getting text message after text message of congratulations.

We all met at JT's steak house. The self proclaimed home of the $15.95 steak. We were laughing and hugging each other in our corner. The rest of the bar was filled with sour faced losers. Shortly after 11pm John McCain conceded.
"He did the right thing." I said. " That was the best speech he's given in years. I'm glad he did it so early too. He redeemed himself a little."
Then Obama came on. He rocked the house.

A text message came in on my phone:
"Harlem is throbbing with excitement and joy. Car's are honking down the street, people are screaming Obama, it's amazing."
I wished I was back home. Another message came in:
"Is it crazy where you are? It's like Times Square here."
"No." I thought. I looked up at the Pennsylvania moon casting shadows over the mountains of Jim Thorpe. "But it's OK."