A Viewer Writes: Election Day

I spent Election Day exit-polling in a swampy, homely hole of a town called Crisfield, MD. It was an adventure.

As soon as I got to the polls, I met with several of the election judges and we discussed where I would set up. This time it was outside of the poll doors.

So I'm there, all set up, and out came one of the judges. He was a rat-faced old man with a bushy mustache and a long grey goatee. He was pissed off. I knew he had an attitude just by his gait. He confronted me, got right in my face, saying that ever since he'd been following Trump, he'd learned to hate the media. Pointing his finger in my face, he said "Do you understand? You're the media. I hate you!"

I mean, Yikes. Clearly this was a dude I had to keep an eye on. He left. But it wasn't for long. He was back in just an hour or so and the Chief Judge was with him. He was a roly-poly kind of guy, sporting a well trimmed mustache and a comb-over. "You have to move back," he said. “Why don't you move back to your truck."

Now, I was parked close to the entrance but it was well away from the polls. "No," I said. "I can't do that."

He insisted and threatened to call the cops. "Call the cops." I said. "I'll call the lawyers."

He called the cops. I called the lawyers.

While were waiting, the rat-faced judge is pointing off in the distance. "That’s right," he yelled. "You're out of here. Get out of here right now."

I turned toward the chief and asked his name. He held up his ID card, which was on a chain around his neck. I shifted back to Rat Face and looked at his ID. And he took it in his hands, lifted it and smashed it onto my face. "I want you to know who I am. Can you see it now?" Actually, I couldn't, but I could see assault and battery. Meanwhile, the chief judge is standing there, just watching. He made no move to rein in his minion.

I bet some of you are holding your breath, thinking “oh, oh, Dave punched out an election judge." But nope. I'm proud /sorry to say I didn't hurt him. I was in journalism mode and I was locked onto the story. Nothing gets in the way of the story. Except this time I got an additional story. And I also have questions for the mayor, or whoever runs that stinking backwater town, and questions for state elections officials.