What an election night!

My mother won her election for State Representative in Vermont. We are thrilled! She worked incredibly hard. She knocked on nearly every single door in her district, and the doors she didn't get to Mr. D, baby Doodle and I did. She sent out a number of mailers one of which had a picture of baby Doodle making him famous in Ward 1. She sent out hand-written postcards to people she met and those who were not home when she went to their houses asking them to read over her literature and asking for their support on Nov. 7th -- her exact words were "It would be an honor to serve you in the State House." She got together a team of fellow Democrats who know people in her ward and they wrote postcards to their friends asking them to support my mom. My mother would work during the day -- she's a para-educator at my former high school -- and come home and either go door-knocking or write post cards or label mailers. She has been working since August and it paid off!

We arrived on Friday night after a not-so-bad drive with baby Doodle. On Saturday, we did a lit drop with baby Doodle on my back in the backpack. On Sunday, we did another lit drop in another area of my mom's district. On Monday, we did yet another lit drop. We would talk to the folks who were outside raking their leaves or mowing their lawns. Baby Doodle was a big hit. Nobody was rude to us. One guy even told me he had already voted for my mom on an absentee ballot. On Tuesday, we woke up and joined my mother outside the polling place where she had been standing since 6:30am. We got there at about 10:00 because of baby Doodle's sleep schedule. In Vermont the tradition is that the candidates stand outside the polls with their signs and greet the voters as the approach the building. So we stood with my mother's opponent, my ex-boyfriend, and some other candidates for state senate, state's attorney, and state auditor. A number of people came up and thanked my mother for the hand-written postcard. They were impressed by how much work she did and felt the personalness of the postcards were worth their votes.

I stood at the polls from 10am to 7:00pm (when they close) with two short breaks. One to say hello to a friend of my mother's who works down the street, and one to pick up and bring an elderly lady to the polls to vote (more on that in a seperate post).

My brother met us at about 6:30pm and at 7:00 we all went into the polling place to await the results. When you run for state rep in my mom's town there is only one polling place the voters can go to so you can find out the results immediately. At first, it appeared that my ex-boyfriend was also going to wait for the results there and that made me nervous because if my mother lost I didn't want her to be embarrassed or have my ex see her break down. In the end her opponent decided not to wait for the numbers to be posted.

The final tally: my mother - 1045, my ex - 807. In a race this small that is a huge margin, especially for a first-timer like my mother.