Vote early, vote often!

Early voting is in full swing at my library and while I'm ecstatic that people are so passionate about voting for the candidate of their choice, it has been somewhat annoying at times.

For instance, there's the lady who called to ask if there was a line to vote - she wanted the person who answered the phone to leave customers waiting at the circulation desk and go all the way out into our lobby to check. Which is kind of silly - I mean, even if there wasn't a line when she called, that's no guarantee that there won't be a line when she arrives.

Then there was the man who thought he left his cane in the voting room and wanted the staff member to go look for it. Now, we've been told that voting security is crucial, and in fact staff members have been chided for coming into the voting room, so I can't imagine the voting people would look too kindly on a staff person rooting around the room looking for a cane. Plus, if the man was able to walk out of the voting room, out of the library, and out to his vehicle without his cane (without even realizing he didn't have it), does he really need it?

And let's not forget the voting people themselves. They scolded our custodian last week for coming into the room to empty the trash, but this week they complained that the trash hadn't been emptied! There's no pleasing these folks. They feel free to come back into OUR work area to use our copier and microwave, and even have gone so far as to take food (not their own) out of our staff refrigerator.

Plus, I'm amazed at the number of people who walk into the library, right past the open meeting room door with all the people milling about, not to mention signs all over the place, and come all the way in the library to the reference desk to ask, "Where is the voting?" I want to say, "You walked right by it on your way in - how could you have missed it?"

I will be SO happy when this election is over!