Now much less than two years till the next national elections, elections that can determine the makeup of Congress, we need to keep the public thinking seriously about the process of voting.

Where were you on election day 11 months ago? What are you doing to prepare for election day 13 months from now? 37 months from now?

Below is my election day experience last November. It opened my eyes to the many small grass roots things we could do that would make a difference. They say: many hands make work light. Will you pledge your hands to do some piece of this light work?

I spent election day doing election protection in Detroit, and, I swear, it changed my life. It opened my eyes. And it makes me impatient with people who are opining without having taken the time to do the homework. It’s one of those things you just can’t understand until you’ve been there.

Before the election, people were worried about a campaign of voter suppression in Detroit. I saw no overt actions to suppress the vote. The two Republican challengers assigned were zealous but not underhanded. They were businessmen, jovial, hail–fellow-well-met sorts. They were dropped off by a van so they did not have to risk having their cars stolen while they were at the polls. The Party dropped food off for them. It gave them a nifty flow chart to help decide how handle voter issues. I was jealous. All the newly learned election law and applying them quickly felt like a jumble.

When one Republican challenger left at 6 pm, the other started hanging out with me. He wanted to talk. I assumed he wanted to hang out with one of the two other white folks there. Maybe I was wrong. He couldn’t talk with the voters, and the election workers were up to their ears busy. But, he did refer to the voters in line as “These people” and used adjectives like “irresponsible.”

I think of him when I hear conservatives express their number one concern about voting – voter fraud, instead of voter disenfranchisement. For many, it’s deeply held stereotypes rather than a cynical ploy.

In any case, that the Republicans did nothing to suppress the vote in this precinct does not mean there was no vote suppression. There certainly was.

The reality is that all it takes to suppress the Detroit vote is business as usual.

So here is the story, on election day, I worked on election protection in an eastside Detroit precinct where the vote tally was 655 Kerry - 29 Bush, no provisional ballots cast, and 4 votes the optical scanner could not read. One had been marked with a ballpoint pen, and the others had gotten wrinkled. This should never happen with an optical scanner, because the voter feeds the ballot in, and the machine immediately shows whether it can read it or not. If the ballot is unreadable, the voter gets a chance to mark a ballot again. The problem here was that the machine was not working for the first couple hours, so all the ballots went into a storage area to be scanned later. The reason the machine was not working was that the precinct workers had not been properly trained in how to turn it on. As a result, the ballots were scanned after the polls closed and the machine was opened. The four unreadable ballots might well have been countable, because the intent of the voters was clear, had there been a recount.

The precinct workers were unfailingly businesslike and upbeat throughout a grueling day. They were at work before dawn and left just before midnight. They only got dinner about 9 pm after the last voter left. Only then did they order in pizza and get down to the work of tallying ballots and packing up.

I saw many first time voters, including some over 40 years old getting ready to cast their first ballots. The atmosphere was calm and determined . . . and patriotic. Geez, you could feel it in the air. This was democracy in action, the closest the average person ever gets to participation in self-governance. It actually brings tears to my eyes just thinking about that scene and the way it all felt.

Many voters went to the wrong precinct that day, because they received no notification that this school gymnasium where they had voted for 20 years was now the wrong place. Not until they finally made it to the registration table did they learn they had to vote some place else. It was a cold wet night, and this was frustrating news for people who had already worked a long day, many of whom did not have a car.

The precinct was severely understaffed and underequipped. Only half the number of precinct workers that had been promised appeared, and there were not enough voting stations.

No one could be spared to stand at the door to check that voters were at the right precinct and head them in the right direction immediately. Instead they stood in line. As a result, long lines led up to sign in and get a ballot and then to cast that ballot.

I have become a real believer in the value of optical scan ballots. I have voted by every method except touch screen, and I have to say that optical scan is great, especially in a precinct like this one. They are clear, easy to mark, and allow you to see the results of what you do, unlike punch cards or voting machines. And on this day with not enough voting booths, optical scan ballots meant that those who didn’t want to wait for a booth could sit on the floor to mark their ballots. It’s not dignified, but it’s not an option with touch-screen voting, voting machines, or punch cards. These voters could have cast their ballots even if the power went out, and had their been a recount, there was a paper record. On the down side, they could mark them with own pens, and the machine couldn’t read them. But if they did, this could be caught when they handed them in, and they had a chance to cast a good ballot.

Aside from the optical scanner, voting went on here as if it were 1930. The lack of key technology really hurt the process, and was a stark contrast to what was available in cities like Ann Arbor, just 40 miles west. What was needed was simple and inexpensive – a computer with a searchable up-to-date list of voters and precincts, a fast connection to publius.com, and a cell phone with a charger. The cost in dollars would be negligible. The cost of voters lost out of frustration cannot be calculated

Here’s what happened to whenever there was a question about a voter’s registration, instead of being able to do a quick search and send them to the right place or know they were in the correct precinct. One of the scarce precinct workers had to go down the hall to the principal's office to call official number after number, all of which were busy. This left the registration tables even more understaffed and challenged voters waiting as much as a half hour, after having waited to checking in at the registration table. Three – even two – more precinct workers would have helped enormously.

But this precinct was lucky, because it had a very smart, courageous, and resourceful America Coming Together (ACT) observer with a friend willing to spend the day at a computer with a fast connection. She and I both had charged cellphones that made it through the day. When a challenged voter was waiting for a precinct worker to find out whether the voter was registered, the ACT observer called her friend. Word soon spread that we could check registrations and either assure voters they were in the right place or get them to the correct precinct.

While the ACT observer contacted her friend, I reassured challenged voters that we wanted them to vote. I explained that if they voted a provisional ballot and this was the wrong precinct, it would probably not be counted. I asked them to cast a ballot that would count. Every single one of them wanted to do that. Fortunately, for most, the correct precinct was only a couple blocks away.

One problem with our training had been that they had made provisional ballots sound like a good option, so in many precincts they were used as a first option when there was a problem. But in Michigan, as in many states, a provisional ballot was close to being a lost vote.

I drove home dead tired that night, but with deep hope – and fear – for this country and its people.

The precinct workers did the real work, but, had it not been for the ACT observer, our cellphones, and her friend spending the day with a fast internet connection, I estimate there could have been 100 fewer votes cast.

This day spent doing unglamorous work demonstrated just how critical these "low-level" jobs at the precincts are. Yet we treat them as if they don’t matter. The results of that attitude are devastating. We risk continuing to have neglect and business as usual suppress the vote. For such a small amount of money, and with more volunteers to be precinct workers, each one of us and our society can demonstrate that we believe the right to votematters.

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