Jon Reisman

Poll Worker Musings

I worked the polls from 9:30 a.m. to almost midnight on November 5. It was a long day of recognizing graying neighbors, friends, and a few new arrivals/same-day registrants. I carefully declined asking for any ID, which was fortunate for both legal and old acquaintances I forgot/failed to recognize.

Collating, counting, and certifying the 113 votes cast in Cooper and Cathance Township took more than 3 hours. My math and administrative skills got steadily less impressive as the evening dragged on. Our Town Clerk is a Marine NCO vet, and she successfully pushed and pulled us through.

Cooper voters also had an opportunity to get their property tax bills, which I suppose might possibly be seen as an illegal poll tax. Taxes are up a bit. Given the ongoing state and county budget issues, next year is likely to be much worse statewide and a likely 2026 gubernatorial election issue. Early prediction: Jared Golden will be running in both Congressional Districts. 

2026 will also be America’s Semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary. That is a mouthful and will require as much or more pronouncing practice as Kamala did this time around. My favorite was from an acerbic female Arizonan conservative podcaster who always referred to the word salad-spinning daughter of the middle class as Kamala dingdong. I still stumble over that, but I would rather have confusion over pronunciation as opposed to pronouns. 

Speaking of which, I have added the following pronouns to my e-mail signature: (XY/Curmudgeon). I realize that these are not pronouns recognized by anyone else, but they are my truth and genetic/personal identity.

A House Divided 

The country is polarized across gender, age, education, marital status, class, and ideological lines. The election and the candidates magnified and inflamed those differences. Calls for unity notwithstanding, the differences are real, and actual governance in any direction will likely increase division. Leadership and policy success may ameliorate that to some degree, but that is a long slow haul.

I do not have any grand solutions to the polarization. Controlling the narrative and stifling opposing viewpoints (often labeled misinformation/disinformation) seems to be the left’s preferred method of securing civility and unity, but that sort of modern understanding of the First Amendment and “Congress shall pass no law” is Orwellian terrifying. Just to remind me that it could happen here, more than seven in ten Maine voters supported Question 1, limiting political speech to $5,000 Super PAC contributions. The Supreme Court in Citizens United said pretty clearly that money is political speech and the government cannot limit political speech, but I guess the censorious temptation is bi-partisan and widespread. In Washington County, only Jonesboro, Machias, Deblois, Grand Lake Stream, and Talmadge declined to gag political speech. Five towns in Washington County still outnumbered the number of 1st Congressional District communities that voted down Question 1: Windham, Bowdoin, and Vinalhaven. Silence peasants!

I believe that one major source of the polarization is social media and our increasingly siloed information sources. We are literally living in different realities, depending on what, how, where, and even whether we get the news. As hard as it is on my blood pressure, I try to at least take in at least some lefty media, if only to know what lies and agitprop they are feeding their Karens and kooks. A few minutes on NPR, CNN, or MSNBC occasionally returns some useful insight, but I draw the line at the New York Times and CBS. I cannot have that level of open misinformation/disinformation in my inbox.

Our polarized state is a poor one to make weighty policy and political decisions in. There is a lot of loud talking going on but very little listening. As an opinionated XY/Curmudgeon, I am not going to stop talking. I am trying to do a better job of listening, and that is the best advice I can come up with as we struggle with our House divided. Keep talking, but listen harder.

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Selectman and a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at [email protected].