inundated to the poll

Music: Elvis Costello and the Attractions: Trust (1981)

I've just returned from the primary poll at Regan High School, which is only about a mile from my home and so I incorporated voting into my daily exercise routine. I'm sure I smelled pretty ripe to the other voters, but heck: isn't multitasking the idiom of the decade? I. Think. So. I cast a sweaty vote for Obama.

Of course, I'm not done voting. Owing to the convoluted Texas primary system, I have to return to the poll tonight to cast my lot again (also for Obama). I'll hitch a ride from my neighbor for that one.

Getting to nomination day, however, has been a frustrating experience. Because Texas is playing an influential role in selecting the democratic ticket, I have been inundated with pre-recorded phone calls. I'm on the "do not call" list. My number is unlisted. But somehow I have been found out (this is what I get, I suspect, for making donations to charities and political figures). The calls started two weeks ago, about once a day, then two or three times a day, and now in the past few days, upward of five calls a day. Caller ID is useless; the calls come as unlisted, long distance phone numbers. I keep thinking a friend from far, far away is calling to say hello, only to disappointingly realize it’s a recording of Michelle Obama or some celebrity I'm supposed to know stumping for someone else's bid for constable.

I've tried just screening my calls by allowing the answering machine to pick up. This does absolutely no good, as the damn computers leave their little speeches on my machine anyway, and I have to listen them to delete them. This one candidate for a court seat has called at least six times in the last three days (I voted for her opponent as a consequence). This telephone stumping is absolutely out of control. Yesterday I took to answering and then hanging up the phone immediately. This works. If I've hung up on you, my apologies, but I probably thought you were a computer.

I wonder if market research bears out the influence of pre-recorded stumping? Jenny S-G? Sharon? I mean, if a real live person were on the other end of the phone, I imagine I could be influenced; feelings can change my mind. But these lifeless recordings, they do nothing to me. They just make me pissy. And if any of you people who design these things are reading: I will make an exception for Obama, but believe me when I say I will vote against your candidate if your computer calls me ever again. I. Will. Even. Vote. Republican. So stop. Please. Please Stop. Stop.