Did Someone Pee????

I worked the Elections last week. As my days go, I usually have a story to tell by the end. This day was definitely no exception!

We had a husband and wife come in together. As they were signing the Register, the wife proceeded to tell us that she needed to help her husband vote. The following is our conversation:

Me: "Ma'am, if your husband will sign the Need Assistant form, we can allow you to help him:
Wife: "We've never had to do that before"
Me: "How do you need to help him?"
Wife: "He can't see. I need to hold his hand and help him fill in the ballot"
Me: "Then, Ma'am, I need him to sign the form authorizing you to help him vote." (Now, remember, he has already signed the Register on his own)
Wife who is very indignant with me: "Honey, you don't know what you are talking about. You are violating our rights!"
Me: "If he doesn't want to sign the form, he can use the Audio Visual machine to vote. Or I can have two Election Official of opposite parties go with him to the booth and help him"
Wife: "Never mind. Never mind. Never mind. We don't need any help. We don't need for you to discriminate against us anymore than you already are!"

Wife proceeded to huff and puff (literally huffing and puffing) taking the two ballots being handed to her husband and her and started to walk towards the voting booths with her husband toting behind.

She turned abruptly and came back towards me. "I want your name. I want your full name!" I calmly wrote my name down on a paper and gave it to her.

Once again, they went to the voting booths and voted. They got their "I Voted" sticker and walked out the door. (To be honest, I had forgotten about the incident once they went back to voting)

However, very shortly, she came barging back into the Precinct holding her phone to her ear and stated quite loudly, "I'm on the phone with the Election Board, you are wrong. You were suppose to let me help him vote. I told you. I told you. You are wrong".

I knew better than to try to console her. So I just looked at her and quietly told her that I would wait for the Election Board to call me. It wasn't too long before I got that call. The Election Board confirmed that I was correct because we had to protect that the husband's vote was being cast and not hers.

The wife proceeded to call the media trying to get a TV media truck to come to our little precinct because I had discriminated against them and she wanted everyone to know about it.

At this point, I did what I've been taught. I saw her being a woman that was having a bad day because someone had peed on her. And it kept me calm.

You see, I grew up in the country of Papua New Guinea where babies don't have diapers and quite often whoever is holding the baby will end up being peed on. My mom once told me when we were talking about the bad moods that people get in: "Just try to think, Jennifer, that maybe they are acting like that because someone has peed on them"

I have used that vision in my head many, many, many times when I run into the path of someone that is in a bad mood and just not being nice.

You see, this wife on Election Day, had no reason to be ugly. We were willing to accommodate her husband to ensure that he was able to vote. So the only logical reason for her being that ugly had to be because someone peed on her.

Sadly, I know that there are days that I act like I've just been peed on. I hope that I can still be kind - even if I'm having a bad day or in a bad mood. I don't want you seeing me with that vision.