The rules didn't matter

“You can’t stand there” the police officer assigned to our polling place told us on election day morning in the 1984 Democratic primary.

Police officers usually didn’t care about polling place irregularities. They often didn’t like being assigned to Election Day duties, so they just stood around ready to stop crime, not to enforce the election code.

Sometimes, they were gone most of the day. Sometimes, they were in cahoots with the Democratic precinct captain.

In this case, the precinct captain and I had made a deal – we would both stand 95 feet from the polling place entrance rather than the legally required 100 feet. That way we could both stand inside, out of the rain.

I said to the cop, “We’re on opposite sides.”

“Oh,” he said. “Then it’s OK.” I guess he assumed we’d keep an eye on each other, so it wouldn’t matter.