I roll into the polls, switch my registration, and eagerly await the results

The Wyoming primary elections have come and gone. Rep. Liz Cheney lost to Harriet Hageman who likely will be the next lone House member from the state. She is a Trumper and we can only expect her support of his every move including a bid for the 2024 presidency. If Trump does not run, Hageman will do anything she can to promote the GOP agenda which mainly consists of demonizing Democrats and what she and her ilk refer to as the Democrat Party. They apparently see nothing democratic about liberal policies that promote free and fair elections, a livable wage, women’s right to choose, free medical care for all and other dangerous practices. GOPers love to chide us about calling our country a democracy when it is really a “constitutional republic.” It’s chilling to note that the GOP wants nothing to do with democracy as a term or as a practice.

I rollated my way to the polls on Tuesday at the Lions Park Community House. Not sure if "rollated" has made it into the dictionary but I find it’s a great term to describe how I wheel myself around on my rollator. It’s basically a walker that rolls. Mine is a red Drive Nitro Aluminum Rollator. You can find it on Amazon. Several companies now make them as more Boomers need assistance getting around without the annoying clanking that goes with traditional walker walking. In my early rollating days, I used a traditional walker footed with tennis balls which act as kind of a silencer for the walking impaired. It allows grandparents to sneak up on their grandchildren before they have a chance to run away.

I was the only one using a rollator during my 30 minutes at the polls. A gentleman in a wheelchair came in behind me and I saw him assisted by an election worker to one of the accessible voting machines. Nobody asked me if I needed assistance which, in a way, was a compliment on my perambulating skills.

There was no waiting to register. My ID was checked at the door. I went over to a friendly face and she asked me all the appropriate questions. This person is a Republican and we have served together on several non-profit boards and never once got into a fight. We have broken bread together and never feared poisoning. I told her I was switching parties from Democratic to Republican. She did the appropriate things on her computer screen, printed me out a ballot and handed it over, directing me to the bank of machines against the far wall. While I waited for a spot to open, another poll worker came to me and said I had forgotten to fill out the paperwork for switching parties. My old colleague had forgotten this step probably because this was her first time working the polls. This poll worker guided me to the Group W Bench where I was told to fill out and sign the paper on line 11. 

“It goes all the way up to 11?” I quipped. She stared. “Excuse me?” I replied "Nevermind" and went about my task. No other miscreants joined me on the Group W Bench and I was a bit lonely.

I finally got to vote. A slick process. I voted in every category because I had done some homework and knew who the loonies were. I remembered back in the oughts when I served as a poll worker for the first time. This was back in the precinct voting days, the first year for electronic voting machines. Some of my colleagues had been suspicious of this switch from paper to electrons. I had my doubts too. But the county clerk’s training crew led us through the process and it seemed bona fide to me. I’ve also served as a poll watcher for my political party. My task was tracking the registered Dem voters on a printout of county residents and keeping an eagle eye on the proceedings. There was a Republican next to me doing the same thing although he quit halfway through the day after realizing that eight of every ten voters were Republicans and the Grand Old Party was certain to retain its hegemony.

On the way out, I put my ballot into the ballot-gathering machine. This was the last step in the process, put in place after much quibbling over ballot security, voting by dead people, ballot harvesting, and other imaginary voting malfeasance. The machine swallowed my ballot, a poll worker gave me a sticker, and I left. There were some news crews out on the street questioning voters. One young man was from ABC. He interviewed the person in front of me and behind me. He probably took one look at me and thought there was no way he wanted to interview a grouchy, semi-disabled old dude rant about various topics close to the heart of right-wing conspiracy theorists. I would have fooled him.

You can view the polling results on the county clerk’s and secretary of state’s web sites. They were expected but troubling just the same. I will switch my registration before the next election. I may be living elsewhere when the general takes place in November. We rollatrists are always looking for greener pastures. Make that blue or at least purple pastures.

FMI: See WyoFile's round-up of the primary results