“It was the most exciting day …

“I’ve been around for quite a few years — providing coffee for meetings and parties and other types of gatherings. Forty cups, the scale on my side wall says. That depends on the size of the cup, of course. I prefer freshly ground coffee beans, but that rarely happens. Usually someone scoops out a cup of grounds from a grocery store brand, fills me with water, plugs in my short cord, and then goes about their event preparations while I perk for about thirty minutes. There’s often someone enjoying the aroma and waiting, cup in hand, when the light goes on and he or she can pop the handle and fill their coffee mug.

“All these things happened on Nov. 4, 2008. But this time it was different. I wasn’t standing in my usual place on the kitchen counter. Instead I’d been carried into a school, filled with coffee and water in the cafeteria, and then placed on a table in the gym.

“It was a strange place. No kids, noisy and exercising that day, but instead a group of smiling and earnest people called election judges taking an oath of office. There were tables with registered voter lists ��� rosters they called them, a table for new registrants, sample ballots and real ballots voter booths, a computerized vote counter, red and white ‘I voted’ stickers, and boxes of supplies and election processing forms waiting to be filled out at the end of the day. There were also some chocolate chip cookies and brownies and bananas for treats — I imagine to go with all of the coffee the judges would drink. There was excitement and anticipation in the air.

“From my vantage point near the wall, I could see people standing in line waiting for their turn at a voting booth. The people were all sizes and shapes and colors and ages. While a few were saying things like ‘Hi, I haven’t seen you in a long time,’ or ‘Isn’t this a beautiful day? Unusual for November,’ or ‘This is truly democracy in action,’ most of them were standing quietly, reading through their ballots, and deciding where they would fill in the ovals.

“There was a tall, rather distinguished looking gentleman in a suit. He looked pretty serious about the job he had to do. An attractive young mother with her little girl chose an empty booth in the corner, and the mother moved a small stack of exercise mats over so her daughter could climb up and watch her fill out the ballot.

“Then a capable looking woman came in, apologizing for the way she smelled. She is on a local volunteer fire department and had just come from fighting a fire in a corn field. She was afraid she would offend the people standing nearby. Then I spotted a high school age girl with a camera. I watched her take a picture of a sample ballot, and I wondered if that was legal.

“I learned that she was an exchange student, and her host family wanted her to accompany them to the polls so she could learn just how the American election process worked.

“Late in the afternoon, a lean, tired-looking young man was standing in line chatting with one of the election judges. He had gotten up at 4 a.m. and worked all day at the hog processing plant on the north side of town. Then a 96-year-old lady came in, leaning on her son’s arm. The election judge directed them to a table on the far side of the room, so she could sit privately and make out her ballot with her son’s help. They teased her about coming back in four years for the next election, and she replied, ‘But then I will be 100!’

“An ambulance crew came in, explaining that a second crew was covering for them while they voted, and at the close of the school day a pretty young teacher, and later a father carrying a baby and with his little son holding on to his daddy’s pant leg, and a retired gentleman getting reacquainted with an old high school classmate, and a very young man, obviously a little nervous and excited about voting for the first time.

“Most of the people were pretty serious until they slipped the completed ballot into the computerized counter. When a new number came up, they smiled, accepted their “I voted” stickers, and left the gym, more relaxed than they had been since they first entered. Even the little kids who had been holding hands with Dad or Mom were proud when they were given a sticker. When they patted the sticker on their chests and smiled, I felt they too knew something important had happened. Later when the election judges were doing their final count, I heard them say that 1,331 ballots were counted in our ward.

“On Nov. 4, 2008, I watched an election take place in a local elementary school. They say that the people’s lives were forever changed that day, that America will change, and the world will change because of what happened there and in other polling places across the United States.

“My only contribution was an occasional, hot cup of coffee for the dedicated and tired election judges, I’m glad I was there. I will never forget that day.”

If the coffee pot could talk.

Bev Jackson Cotter is a storyteller and a member of the Albert Lea Art Center where the unique and traditional “Festival of Trees” will be featured from Nov. 28 to Dec. 31. The opening reception will be held from 4 to 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 28. There is no admission charge, but donations are always appreciated.