In thanks for and praise of Charlotte

This election season, especially on the national level, has been full of chaos, dysfunction and uncertainty. Not here in Charlotte. We rule. This is due to the magnificent work of Mary Mead, Sy Koerner and the fabulous Jim at the Charlotte Post Office. Of critical importance was the cadre of volunteers who took care of the polls and vote counting. Charlotte runs on volunteers and this is a good time to thank them.

Every Charlotter received a mail ballot. Most were voted through the mail. Jim at the Post Office made sure they were timely delivered, including hand delivering them to the Town Hall.

Mary and Sy had to open them and prepare the ballots to count on Election Day. No small task. They also had to set up the Town Hall for in-person voting.

On Election Day the volunteers came to staff the in-person polling and to start counting the ballots. A really generous guy brought cookies for the volunteers to share.

Ballots are run through a “tabulator” but each has to be inspected to see if there are any write-ins. If so, they are put in a separate pile for the write ins to be hand counted on a separate form. Tedious. As a very small contribution my husband and I did this part and were so impressed with the folks we teamed up with to get the job done. We were awed by the volunteers. When we left I told Mary I would be back by 6:00 p.m. to help. I did. The polls were still open and staffed, but Mary had everything organized. The job was completed and all of Charlotte votes were reported by 8:00 p.m.

We should give thanks and praise for our town.