Alice Eisele is ready for Tuesday's election. She should be. She has plenty of experience.
Eisele has worked the primaries and elections in the East Wakarusa precinct since 1943. This will be her 16th presidential election. Though she won't predict a winner, she has plenty to say about politics of today and the past.
Q: How did you get your start working elections?
A: I had an uncle who lived next to us when I was a child. He was a Wakarusa Township trustee, and I had graduated from high school that August. At that time you could do a bit of electioneering at the polling places and I handed out cards for him to be re-elected to the trustee position in 1943. I wasn't old enough to vote, but I could do that.
Q: What was the voting age then?
A: I believe it was 21. I was 18 at the time. When I got old enough to vote, he asked me if I wanted to work the election board. He put me on the counting board until they put the counting machines at the courthouse.
Q: How did they count the votes before that?
A: All of the votes were hand-counted.
Q: What was that like?
Alice Eisele is ready to work at the polls during Tuesday's elections. She has worked during elections since 1943. Eisele posed for a portrait last week at the Douglas County Courthouse, where advance voting was taking place.
A: It was interesting. We didn't have to go in at 6 or 7 in the morning. We got to go in at 10 and we'd count all day. One time I lost my voice. The next morning I couldn't talk from reading all of the ballots.
Q: What was the worst part of hand-counting?
A: The most boring part was when there wasn't a contest -- if a candidate was running unopposed. And we had to string all the ballots. After they were read, you put them on a string with a needle. That's how you kept them all together.
Q: How many times would you double-check them?
A: We tried to check them as we went along to be sure we didn't make a mistake because it was a mess if you had to take them all off the string and start over again.
Q: Have you worked in every election since 1943?
A: No. I had two children in there, and I didn't work the year my husband was ill. I would say I haven't missed more than five.
Q: Are you a Democrat or Republican?
A: I came from a very staunch Republican family, but I vote the person. I don't vote strictly a Republican ballot. You should have seen my father's face the day I told him that I voted for (George) Docking (for governor).
Q: Why do you think people can be so divided over politics?
A: I don't know. I have a lot of friends who are Catholic, and I'm not Catholic. I think everyone should just get along.
| Hometown: Rural Lawrence. Family: Husband, the late Harold Eisele, and two children, Sharon Petrone, Topeka, and Steven Eisele, Lawrence. Education: 1943 graduate of Liberty Memorial High School. Celebrity classmate: Graduated with former Kansas Gov. Robert Docking. Career: Homemaker. Favorite food: Barbecue. Regular lunch date: About 20 members of her high school graduating class meet once a month for lunch. |
Q: Do you think politics are nastier now than in the past?
A: I think that TV has made it more obvious. If I had my way, they (the candidates) wouldn't get on TV. They'd have to come and shake my hand and talk with me.
Q: Do you remember a time when people were this angry about politics?
A: A lot of people were upset with Clinton. And coming from a Republican family, there sure was a lot of criticism of Roosevelt, even though he was helping the economy. But there didn't seem to be the personal biting of one another like now. They're not even talking about issues. They're talking about personalities. You just don't need to bring family into it.
Q: This year's presidential race has been heated. Have there been other races like this?
A: When (John) Kennedy ran against (Richard) Nixon in 1960, that was closely contested. People always talked about how good-looking and charismatic Kennedy was. I didn't think you should vote for somebody because of looks.
Q: Do you think people are more or less involved than when you were younger?
A: To me, perhaps this (election) they have become more involved. Up until now, we did not see younger people coming in and voting. In the primary, we had new registrations of younger people coming in to vote.
Q: Do you think the Vietnam era was similar to our current situation?
A: Yeah, I think the war is. People are either for it or against it. There's not really a middle. But possibly I was more comfortable with the Vietnam War than this one. Whether we have any business over there, I don't know.
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