Elections and trying not to catch a cold...

Local elections can be a little hectic. Generally, the paper wants to cover as much ground as possible (a bad idea in my opinion), so the two photogs at the paper must travel from voting location to voting location, party to party, all in the hopes that we can catch 1) voters (of course!); 2) a candidate greeting voters, themselves; 3) a candidate hearing the good/bad news (hopefully before 9pm—fat chance).

campaign managers are always texting, or checking emails. always.

On the other hand we are also simultaneously trying to avoid: 1) grief from local “poll police” for taking pictures at a polling locale. These laws depend on the county. In some places they are adamant you can not take pictures inside. In Prince William County, you are absolutely allowed, and a sign outside the polling place usually tells as much. 2) grief from local party volunteers about how your paper didn’t endorse their candidate. Such a remark is usually followed up with a quip, “we won’t hold it against you, though…nyuk, nyuk, nyuk…”. Oh really, you won’t hold it against me that several individuals with little or no contact with me will endorse a particular candidate? Thanks. And finally, we are really, really trying 3) to avoid criticism from the newsroom for not getting to 3 candidate parties, separated by 30 miles, and filing remotely in 1 hour.

I'm also trying not to catch H1N1, but that doesn't necessarily make me unique...
Here are more pictures…