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You're Not Gonna Believe . . .April 10, 2008 what I did today. I voted. West Tisbury's town election was today. I last voted in a West Tiz election in (probably) 1990 or 1991. I last voted in 2000. I'd almost forgotten how much fun election day is. Waving at everyone holding signs in the parking lot. Recognizing at least half the people driving in. It started before that even: picking up my mail at the p.o., I was asked if I'd voted and then handed a flyer. Not to worry, I said, I'm already voting for her. These days West Tiz votes at the public safety building on State Road, near the upper end of Lambert's Cove Road. The public safety building wasn't even conceived the last time I voted in West Tisbury. The "new" post office -- nearby, on the other side of the road -- wasn't built either. It opened around the time I moved to Tisbury, in early 1992. Goodbye to the old p.o. box at Alley's General Store, the one whose combination I never remembered but it didn't matter because all you had to do to open the box was set the dial just so and then turn the handle. John Alley was kibitzing outside the public safety building. Well, you couldn't exactly hold a West Tisbury election without John on the premises, even if he's no longer on the board of selectmen. Eileen Maley was one of the poll workers. Around 1987 at a West Tisbury town meeting Eileen turned in her seat and asked if I could come fill in as typesetter at the Martha's Vineyard Times. At the time I was running a classified ad as a freelance typist. How she knew who I was I never found out, like I never found out how the UPS guy knew whose house I was staying at and therefore where to deliver a parcel I received about a week after I first arrived. People find out what they want to know. That's just the way it is. If it freaks you out, don't move here. I filled in for the typesetter, then I filled in for the proofreader, then I filled in for the typesetter again, and then all of a sudden I was the proofreader. Eileen was the M.V. Times's first Calendar editor. I was the second. I still think we were the best. Did I say that we use paper ballots in West Tisbury? I don't think there's a voting machine on Martha's Vineyard. No chads, hanging or otherwise. I was a bit cocky because this election I knew more or less what I was doing: I'd been to enough meetings to see both selectman candidates in action, and I was pretty clear who I was for and why; and I'd done my research on the other contested race, which was for library trustee -- four running, vote for two. A few hours later I came home from the barn to a message on my machine: someone I respect very much was urging me to vote for the selectman candidate I didn't vote for. It was a timely reminder that elections don't usually pit good against evil or vice versa, and there's generally something nice to be said for both sides. With national elections it's harder to remember this, and sometimes it just ain't true. But it made me glad that I voted today in West Tisbury. P.S. Just checked the election results on www.mvtimes.com and my guy, Richard Knabel, won for selectman. My library trustee candidates both lost, but one of them came within eight votes of winning. The Prop 2.5 override passed, which means the renovation and adding-onto of the town hall will proceed. I voted for that too.
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