Though this is only my second election in San Mateo County (in less than a year), I decided to sign up to be a poll worker -- and, since I'm writing more, blog about the experience.

This morning I opened a letter, purportedly from Warren Slocum, which read:

You are hereby notified, pursuant to Elections Code Section 12307, that the Chief Elections Officer has appointed you to serve as JUDGE of the precinct board for the CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL GENERAL ELECTION to be held on TUESDAY, 11/07/2006

Looks like "judge" is the title they give to generic precinct workers; other titles are "inspector" (clearly the person in charge) and "student PW" (probably a bored high school intern.)

Since I'll be in Toronto all next week, the only training sessions I'm likely to be able to get to are either tomorrow or mid-afternoon on the 30th, but I'm confident I can make one of those work.

Now...where's my absentee ballot? It should've arrived by now.

Whee, election time again. Bush and his cronies are still in the White House, but they're losing the ability to pretend that their fuckups aren't fuckups. On the national stage, the best that any non-Republicans can hope for is that the Democrats regain enough power to embarass the Republicans further.

But me, I like to take a long-term view (especially when the short term sucks.) In 2006, the longer term of national politics -- the players, the issues, even the voters -- are being forged in local districts. But somehow I've managed to miss most of the local coverage, so I'm starting nearly fresh. I don't plan on actually filling out my ballot until I've had time to read comments (so please comment!) and continue thinking.

I've moved to Redwood City since the last election, so I won't be covering Oakland politics (except to say that I still love Oakland, and strongly support Barbara Lee.)