My vote is a secret!

During my shift at the Kitzhaber campaign office yesterday, I came across maybe 2 or 3 people who wanted to talk (out of 6 pages.) Many were out enjoying the late start of spring, so they didn't pick up. Many were unhappy about being called (see: busy watching Arrested Development.) One heartbreaking woman couldn't get to the polling station to drop off her vote. If I had a car I would have hauled my ass out to Astoria to help her. I know exactly what that's like. My great grandma, in her final days, hated not being able to move. She was bored with TV and sometimes liked to watch the old lady across the street work in her garden. No doubt remembering the times she herself could tend her Irises on at her little house in Insley.

The most bewildering though, and a legacy of some real trouble in the United States were the ones who refused to tell us who they voted for. In my naivete I didn't realize that it wasn't so long ago that you could be fired from a job, or persecuted for your choice in the primary. And I'm not sure that Oregon elections are so different now. Would a Portland business fire you for voting Tea Party? Would your coworkers think differently of you if you voted Republican? It's possible. So Mabel's unwillingness to tell me who she chose in the primary could be a very real concern. And one with much more sininster consequences in the very recent past.

But good heavens it's a pain for those of us trying to track primary data!