Washington State is the slowest state in counting it's election ballots, and King County, where I live, is the slowest county. People have been complaining about the slowness, and having to wait for the election results. But, this got me to thinking about knitting and crocheting.
First of all, Washington is an all mail-in ballot state. I really love this because it allows me to have the ballot in front of me at my computer while I look up the initiatives and candidates as I fill it in. Ok, I could fill in a sample ballot at my computer, and bring that with me to the polls, and I used to do that before we went to all mail in, but, this saves a step. Another nice thing about our system is that there are no long lines or any type of problems at the polls with fraud or intimidation. However, counting all of those mailed in ballots, some of which arrive days after the "official" election day, takes time.
One of the problems is that in Washington, ballots have to be POSTMARKED on election day to be valid. In Oregon, our other all mail in state, the ballots have to ARRIVE by election day. This makes getting a result out on election night much faster, but I like our method better. Why? Because if something happens the day before election day that would change my vote... I want to be able to change it. Once you have mailed in that ballot, you are stuck. And I tend to mail my ballot in pretty late. This year I mailed it in the Monday before the election. It didn't arrive until Wednesday, the day after the election, but I checked the "ballot tracker site" and it did arrive, and was counted. Ok, this part doesn't really have anything to do about knitting or crochet, so on to the part that does.
The ballots, when they arrive, are fed into a ballot reader, one at a time, a bit like knitting and crochet, one stitch at a time. The Seattle Times has a nice article about why the counting takes so long, and how it is done. The best part was when the article contrasted our slowness to how quickly Oregon counts their votes. Oregon uses electronic signature verification and asks the workers to stay late into the night.
In King County, workers go home at 8:30 p.m. or earlier.
"Here's what I know about working people until midnight and having them back early in the morning: That's when you have problems," said Sherril Huff, director of King County Elections. "That's when you make mistakes."
Ha! Just like when you knit or hook too late into the night, and start making mistakes. I was listening to the Yarniacs Podcast and they said something about not ripping something back after 10 pm. That if you think you made a big mistake late at night, to set the project down and recheck it in the morning when you are fresh.
Also, the vote count made me think about how waiting for accurate results is way more important than quick results. This is so true in knitting and crochet. I have ripped back my cast-ons many times, willing to have the project take longer if that is what is needed for a good FO.
I also loved this quote from Katie Blinn, the State's Co-Election Director, "if it takes an extra day, life will go on." If you don't get your handmade gift ON Christmas, life will go on, and the gift will still be special. Chill out people.
It is nice to have the results in and the election really over, but it is nicer to have accurate results. Anyway, who is complaining? Mainly the news reporters. Again, according to Blinn, "Washington's system is relatively inexpensive, accurate and encourages turnout."
I don't know that I would say that knitting or crochet are relatively inexpensive, but their stitch by stitch nature encourages patience, and an appreciation of things that take time to do accurately.
If I had had to stand in line for eight hours to vote, instead of sitting comfortably at my computer, I would have brought my knitting to work on while waiting for my turn.
Stay safe and well.
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet in the great state of Washington.
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