Photo Shoot: Election Day
Election Day mission, start out early, go to as many towns as possible and photograph polling places and the voting scene and have all the photos uploaded after each visit to a live online election blog with a hard deadline for the print edition by 1 p.m. This was no “Mission Impossible,” there was no self destructing instructional tape and I wasn’t offered the choice to accept it.
The morning was bright, following up a total eclipse of the full moon in the overnight hours and the country was back on Eastern Standard Time. The day was ripe with visual possibilities. My trusty Nikons were riding up front, ready for action. The cell phone had a PDF document from Secretary of State Bill Galvin regarding photography in the polling places. It stated, “Photographers must be allowed inside the polling place to photograph the area from outside the guardrail.” I headed to Buzzards Bay and the Bourne Community Center.
The first thing that caught my eye was not the rows of political signs, but a 12-foot-tall Halloween holdover skeleton, arms reached out in a welcoming pose as arriving voters jockeyed for a parking space near the entrance. An old photo editor referred to most of the voting images his staff used to present for editing as “butts in booths.” People’s backsides hunched into small cabinets with their long ballots and a marker. I’ve tried everything I can think of to find a different angle over the years, but the limited perimeter access makes this a supreme challenge. So when 10-year-old Logan Desrosiers walked out with his mom’s “I voted sticker” on his forehead I had my first image of the day.
Time was of the essence and the skeleton was calling. I could never quite combine the boney fellow with something that screamed Election Day. But the crowds coming and going made it a picture and when you think about it, why not try and combine Election Day with some Halloween fun.
The photomobile headed back east, onto the Cape to hit another run of stops as the clock was ticking. One antidote for predictable voting angles is at the Hyannis Youth and Community Center, where an overhead walking track provides a bird’s eye view. Plus a solid red gym divider yields a nice background to the voting booths featuring a patriotic bald eagle on the sides.
It was shortly after 11 am when I left the Hyannis parking lot with two more stops farther east to make. My fourth stop of the day proved to be a challenge. Upon arriving, as I always do, I checked in with the poll worker in charge. I was told to stand by as her belief was that photography was not allowed inside polling places in this town, which shall remain unnamed. She made a call to the town clerk who confirmed her statement. I protested and tried to present the Secretary of State info. No go. I was asked to leave the building and call the clerk myself outside. I did but only got through to someone in the office. This was a battle for another day. Thirty minutes wasted with no photos. Wheeling back west, the Yarmouthport First Congregational Church’s front lawn was full of flags, an ideal backdrop for arriving voters and my final images sent in by 12:55 pm. Mission accomplished.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Photo Shoot: Election Day
