A Band of Color

It was already after noon when I got a call from the town clerk.  The company that maintains our vote tabulators had a team at the County Court House.  They were running logic checkups and other tests on all of the machines today.   Our tabulator was locked in at the town hall and the town clerk was in a training session for her job.  Could I take the machine over and get it serviced today?  Sure.  She was on lunch break so she swung by my house to give me her string of keys.  I had tried to comb my hair but it can be unruly in the winter.  I pulled a knit cap over it, flung on my winter coat. and bopped down to the town hall.  The machine was still atop the ballot bin and it's very heavy.  I managed to remove it, snug it into the carrying case, and was wondering how I'd lift it into the back of my car when the door opened and Town Treasurer Michelle walked in.  Thankfully she helped me heft the thing into the car and I was off.  Gravity gave me the assist I needed in removing the tabulator from the back of my car and bringing it to the County Clerk's office.  The guys checking out the machine were very polite and nerds.  Fortunately, I'm fluent in nerd and while they worked I got answers to some questions I had about the machine.   I also asked the clerk's aide if the County Clerk had put us down for a Saturday Public Test in the notice that should be in the paper this week.  The aide didn't know anything about the rules around elections or if there was a notice put in the paper.  Didn't fill me w/ confidence but she texted the County Clerk and I had answers by the time I left.  Best of all the aide was nice enough to hoist the tabulator into the back of my car.    At the Town Hall I managed to actually get the machine back atop the ballot box and plug it in.   I'd also picked up all of the ballots and other paperwork for the upcoming election at the County Clerk's office.   Before I left the Town Hall I went into the office and took the extra set of building keys.  Texted the Town Clerk that the tabulator was back at the town hall, I had the election paperwork and the extra set of keys, and she could pick up her keys from my house whenever she had the time.