Burying the Hatchet at ``Return Day'' in Georgetown, Delaware.
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With the midterm elections just around the corner, I find myself reminiscing about past elections and the time-honored customs associated with exercising your civic duty that reminded you that you belonged to a familiar tight-knit community, and weren’t just a registration number being whisked in and out of your polling station in the blink of an eye.
I remember, for example, growing up in a western suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, where there was often apple strudel and coffee available as voters made their way to the voting booth. It made for a nice sense of bonding and comradeship among voters. That tradition, like so many other treasured rituals, has long since disappeared.
In the 19th century, of course, before the reforms of the 1880’s, voters on Election Day could be found mingling with other voters for hours on end, munching on food, and indulging in the spirits that political parties were all too willing to provide for free to their precinct. In Philadelphia during the 1880’s, after the polls opened, the State bell could be heard tolling every three to five minutes throughout the city, as a reminder to citizens to exercise their duty.
And well into the 19th century, Election Day meant plenty of parades with citizens marching through the streets, waving American flags, state flags, and other partisan flags.
So as we prepare to vote in what is sure to be a highly contested Election on November 2nd, I thought I would survey some counties nationwide to see if their communities still have some long held Election Day traditions that have remained intact, despite all the advances with computer technology, and the increasing reliance on early voting and absentee voting replacing neighborhood polling stations.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn there are indeed some communities which still hold fast to their Election Day traditions.
Here, then, is a brief sampling:
• In Georgetown, Delaware (population 4,927) in Sussex County, they have an Election Day tradition, dating back to the 1790’s called ``Return Day’’, in which voters return to the town two days after the election to hear the voting results. ``Return Day is tradition in Sussex County, and people don’t like it when you mess with tradition,” said Return Day Committee President Rosalie Walls.
Return Day includes a parade, followed by residents gathering in front of the historic Sussex County Courthouse to hear the Town Crier deliver the returns from the Courthouse balcony. This event, of course, is not an official reading of the returns, just a mock event or a dramatic depiction of how Sussex County voters heard the results circa 1837. Since 1965, Return Day (November 4th) has become a legal holiday for county and state workers in Sussex County
The biennial event is additionally punctuated with dramatic “Burial of the Tomahawk” by Sussex County’s party chairmen, which officially ends Delaware's political season.
In addition to the selling of food and crafts, visitors are welcome to dig into a free Ox Roast Sandwich, which is a slow cooked beef sandwich, barbequed on an open pit. Vice President Joe Biden has attended every Return Day since being elected and is expected to appear this year.
• Every Election Day for the last 110 years, residents of Wapakoneta, Ohio (population 9,474) the birthplace of former astronaut Neil Armstrong in Auglaize County attend a Turkey Dinner at the First United Methodist Church in Wapakoneta. The dinner on Election Day, November 2nd, starts promptly at 4:30 p,m. and lasts until 7:00 p.m. Admission is $8.00.
• In one close-knit precinct in the mill town of Scotia (population 1,000) in Humboldt County, on the north coast of California, located 200 miles north of San Francisco, poll workers decorate their polling place, the fire hall, with bunting and all things red, white and blue. If it is a school board election, they wear their letterman jackets from high school. At 7:00 a.m. they step outside with a cowbell and announce for the whole town to hear “Hear Ye, Hear Ye. The Polls are Open.”
If a resident is a first-time voter, poll workers, again using the cowbell, announce that John Doe is exercising his right to vote for the first time. If the first time voter happens to be bashful and doesn’t want his name announced, the poll workers, of course, honor their request by skipping the announcement.
Poll workers in Scotia have held their positions for years. It’s considered such a prominent position that you need to inherit your place on the board.
• Daniel G. Burk, Registrar of the Voters Office in Washoe Count in northern Nevada tells me that when he went to observe the Presidential Elections in Kazakhstan in Dec. 2003, located in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, ``every polling location had the most grand spread at each site that included things like canned peaches and pears, breads and jams and these people had almost nothing of value in their lives in terms of possessions yet they wanted the observers to sit down and have lunch with them, even though we knew no Kazak or Russian and they knew no English. Then, though it was freezing cold, every poll manager walked us to the gate out front of their polling place and wished us well. In one location they had an orchestra of 7 or 8 musicians playing traditional instruments and music of Kazakhstan. `` It was one of the most touching experiences I've had’’ Burk said ``in 32 years of administering elections.’’
• In the 2nd Congressional district of Hartford County, Connecticut, a number of residents still try to uphold the tradition of baking the Hartford Election Cake
The Election Day cake was a tradition that dates back to the 1700’s in Connecticut, when going to the voting polls meant a long journey, which was accompanied by visiting with friends and family during the day. But as polling places became more accessible during the 19th century, the Election Day cake gradually became less common. Still, some residents, like Jane Sibley, a poll worker from Haddam, a town in Middlesex County, CT, plans to bake the Election Cake for her fellow election workers.
• On Election Day In Farmington, 15 miles west of Hartford CT, centered in the Farmington Valley, community spirits are well supported and kept alive as the local Women's Club holds a bake sale, the local girl scouts sell cookies and local boy scouts sell Christmas wreaths outside the four polling places in town.
• In Calhoun County. Mississippi (named after John C. Calhoun, the U.S. Vice President and U.S. Senator from South Carolina), in addition to poll workers feasting on a pot luck meal in which everyone brings their favorite dish, whether it’s a casserole or a pie, voters have been known to surprise workers with a tin of homemade peanut brittle or a dozen glazed donuts. ``Seems everyone here wants to keep the workers happy’’ said Deborah Dunn, Circuit Clerk in Calhoun County.
• Jerry Holland, Supervisor of Elections in Duval County (Jacksonville, Fla), tells me workers from one of his precincts bake cookies for voters; and they do it on their own time and with their own money. ``But the voters love it.’’
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Of course, not everyone has the same passion for Election Day as the ones just cited. Theresa Owens, County Clerk from Carlisle County in Bardwell, KY, for example, has a completely different take on Election Day traditions in her county. `` The only tradition this office has ’’ Owens said, ``is getting up at 4 a.m. in order to get to the office by 5. The office is also open for regular business all day. The polls close at 6 p.m. and by the time all totals come in and reports to the state are finalized I might get to leave for home by 9p.m.’’ ``Elections are a thankless job’’ Owens adds, `` we County Clerks do. We do want to have a good relationship with the voters but they can eat before or after they vote!’’
Michael A. Kern, County Clerk from Christian County in Hopkinsville, KY, is yet another Kentuckian who doesn’t share my sense of nostalgia for Election Day.
``We all long for “Happy Days” Kern wrote in an email, ``but you are talking about a simpler time when we had a ballot and a box. Today we have to setup and operate two voting machines (one regular and one handicapped accessible). We have to contend with challengers, exit polling, provisional ballots, ADA regulations, disaster planning and the possibility of being sued for not fallowing all regulations and procedures. Kentucky County Clerks are not only responsible for elections they are among other things the County Recorder and DMV.’’
After receiving some sharp replies from both Owens and Kern, I couldn’t help but think I may have caught them on a bad day.
-Bill Lucey
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