The town's chief elections inspector was taking a vacation. The deputy chief inspector had just quit. I'm not sure how it happened but I was picked to fill in as chief inspector. This election was only non-partisan races - judges, school board, and town officers. Except for one judge race, all were uncontested. The weather went from cold but sunny for a short time in the morning, to gusting winds, to rain, back to cold and snow. All of that should have meant a low turnout day but instead we had a steady stream of people - 1/3 of registered voters voted. At the end of 13 hours it was time to start shutting down. Jarita realized her car was stuck in a soft area on the lawn. She stuck dried weeds behind the wheels hoping that would give them traction. I bent down at the corner of the bumper to give an extra push. As the wheel caught it laid down a stream of mud on me from stem to stern - exactly like it happens in slapstick comedies. The car was free but I was a mess. I cleaned up enough so I wouldn't dirty the ballots and we finished the counting and paperwork by 10 p.m. It was an eventful day but I'll remember this last part the most - as I'm sure the rest of the town will when the story gets around.
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