ELECTION - THE DAY AFTER: 2:34 PM EST

I'm just now catching up on everything else that happened in the elections yesterday. When I took Michael home his dad told me that the Republicans had lost both the House and Senate. That was the first and last time that I even thought about the national elections until the last little while.

It doesn't matter to me anymore which party is in control of Congress, or the White House even for that matter. It took me long enough but I've come to realize that both of the major parties... actually, just about any party for that matter... are preoccupied with only one thing: acquiring power. They keep telling us that if we only give them more power, that they will earnestly work to make things better. So we give them power, only to watch them abuse it time after time. I don't know if I could even trust the "third-party" groups, like the Constitution and Libertarian parties as much as I would like, because they are founded on the same basic principle: "please just give us a little bit of power".

I took a peek at a couple of the big political sites (I'm not going to name which ones: they're both all too well known for which party they shill for). It didn't take much to predict what their reactions would be to yesterday's election, and it was just as I was expecting: there is jubilation on one, and outrage on the other. One is deeply saddened that their party has lost power, while the other one is basking in euphoria.

And while I'm giving it this cursory glance I can't help but wonder: "What difference does it make?" I saw this same thing happen twelve years ago when the Republicans toppled the Democrats from power in Congress. Now the tables have turned... and for the life of me I can't understand how this is going to really change things at all. The Republicans have had both houses of Congress and the White House for six years now. They've had more than enough opportunity to make a long-lasting impression for the better on the American landscape. Instead I've watched them over the past twelve years as they've progressed from sweeping victory to utter stagnation. This Congress has been little more than a rubber-stamp on everything that President Bush has presented before them: No Child Left Behind, the PATRIOT Act, "campaign finance reform"... you name it, they've done it for him. The only thing that I can see happening any different is that the change in power in Congress will make it a little harder for Bush to get anything passed that he wants... but since so many things of his ideology matches those of many of the Democrats, I don't really expect him to be hampered all that much. One way or another, we are going to get amnesty for illegals rammed down our throats, no matter who's in power in Washington: it just got a little easier after last night, is all.

Other than these observations, the whole Congress situation doesn't really figure on my radar. There really isn't much more than I can say about it.

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ELECTION - THE DAY AFTER: 11:42 AM

I slept good! The best that I've had in awhile. And I got to sleep in a little late too. Lisa was the one who woke me up with a phone call from school: they're going to start throwing away all the signs later this afternoon, so I need to go get mine. There are a little over 200 signs of mine spread out across the county... and Lord only knows where I'm going to put them all :-P Then I called Mom and after that talked to Scott, the associate pastor of my church.

I'm still feeling what I felt last night when I hit the hay: upbeat and impressed and proud and... positively stunned. The thought of tattooing "4,584" on my chest - along with the knight chesspiece logo from my campaign - has crossed my mind at least once since last night. But I know Lisa wouldn't let me do that: a tattoo really is a permanent reminder of your temporary insanity, and it's good to have a wife there to defuse crazy notions like that :-)

There's a few things I need to do today, not the least of which is start getting signs up. There's also some things I'm feeling inclined to talk about so far as what did happen last night goes... but that might come a little later than I promised last night. Later on today though, I plan on doing the thing that I'd intended to do if I had won: even though I didn't win a seat, as proud as I am of my first-time campaign and how remarkably well I did, I think I deserve treating myself to this. You'll find out later on this evening what it is :-)

Okay, off to take down signs.

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ELECTION DAY: 11:06 PM EST - What I'm feeling right now

Earlier this evening, a very dear friend called me up. She said that she knew tonight was going to be "a big night for you". I never doubted her. And you know what? She was right.

This is going to sound completely crazy to a lot of people, but: I didn't win my first election... and I don't know if I could feel any more happy than I'm feeling right now.

Out of 16 contenders, I finished 8th place, with 4,584 votes. I wound up in the top half of the finishers. From the very beginning of this thing, I had told everyone that if I only got ten votes, I would be happy. I got almost 46000% of that. And considering that this was my very first time in the political arena - not to mention the fact that a little over four months ago running for school board was the furthest thing from my mind - well...

I'm really feeling very stunned at the outcome of tonight's election. In a very positive way.

I came into this race with a message. Tonight, almost forty-six hundred of my neighbors said they agreed with what I was saying with that message. For that, for everyone who chose to support me by casting a ballot in my favor, I am going to forever be more thankful than I know if I'll ever be able to show. Forty-six hundred is a lot of people. I knew that even if I was elected, all by myself I could never set this world on fire... but a great flame can still burst from the smallest embers. And there's a lot of potential in forty-six hundred people. If God has used me in this to get just one person to think about what's going on around us, then I fulfilled my purpose in running.

Tonight was an affirmation for me. And it didn't matter whether I won or not. For years people have been telling me that I should seek public office. I had no idea when or even if I should have really sought that. But not after tonight. I may not have won the election... but more than any other time since I first became a Christian, tonight I feel as if I am definitely on the path that God has wanted for my life.

It was a good campaign, and I'm as proud of it as anyone could possibly be. It was a positive, clean campaign that never lashed out or otherwise denigrated anyone else. I would say that it was a very successful campaign even. I mean, how many first-time candidates, with their first-ever political ad - that they made themselves - wind up getting their pictures in The New York Times?

And I'm coming out of this election with a considerable portfolio of not just news-clippings, but three self-produced commercials and some print advertising. A friend suggested that I should set myself up as a political consultant after this. At the very least that was a heck of a lot of creative content that came from me for this.

Tonight, I'm not the same person who filed the papers to run back at the beginning of August. These past three months have been the most amazing growth experience that I've had in a very long time. And the thing of it is: I did grow a lot... but I never grew away from who I really am.

It's late. I've only slept two hours since waking up on Monday morning. I'm going to go to sleep and get a long night's rest... maybe the best that I've had in awhile. Tomorrow I'm going to post more about what happened tonight, and probably include some analysis of how the votes broke down.

But tonight, I get to go to bed a happy man. My wife is proud of me. My parents are proud of me. My best friends are proud of me. And I'm proud of what I've done with this race too. Just think: if I did this good my first time out, how much better might I do if I ever choose to run again in the future?

Thank you for bearing with me today, dear friends, as I strived to give you a blow-by-blow depiction of what it's like to be a candidate on election day... not to mention throughout the process of this entire campaign. I really hope that other people might read about my experiences in running and think to themselves: "I could do that. I can do that. Maybe I will do that!"

'Til later, take care, and God bless.

And to EVERYONE who has supported me throughout this thing: thank you... and you're going to get the proper credit real soon :-)

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ELECTION DAY 9:30 PM EST - FINAL RESULTS

Finals just came in. I'm not going to be going to the Rockingham County Board of Education. But, I did get 4,584 votes. Definitely not last place though. I think this puts me about 7th or 8th out of 16... which is sort of what I'd predicted a few days ago.

Okay, I gotta take Michael home. I'll post more thoughts later :-)

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ELECTION DAY: 9:11 PM EST

WGSR is saying I have over 2,000 votes now. I forgot how many it was exactly: I was way too stunned just seeing that I'd broken into four digits. Not all precincts reporting yet though.

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ELECTION DAY: 8:46 PM EST

Found the page where live results are being posted. But as of this writing it's still just the absentee and early votes. So far I'm nowhere in the lead: 503 votes, with Dr. James Austin at the head of the pack with 1240.

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ELECTION DAY: 8:22 PM EST

But alas... no school board results at all yet.

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ELECTION DAY: 8:15 PM EST

Absentee and early votes are starting to trickle in. They're being reported on WGSR Star 39. We're watching now: Lisa, Michael (who thought he'd stick around 'cuz this is "educational") and me, here at our place. So it's sort of the nice quiet evening I'd talked about, except we're tuned into the results.

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ELECTION DAY: 7:02 PM EST

It can't be said that we haven't at least had fun during this campaign...

And Lisa made me take this picture of her since she got her hair trimmed this afternoon...

I can't believe how beautiful she is. Just look at me though: that's what 2 hours of sleep in the past 36 hours will do to you.

The polls close in less than a half-hour.

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ELECTION DAY: 5:32 PM EST

Michael and I left the place about 2:30. There was nothing to eat here and the boy was starving - and good candidate that I aspire to be I gotta keep my volunteers well-fed and happy - so we stopped at Wendy's and he got a triple-decker cheeseburger with fries and a Coke. I had nothing. I didn't want to eat anything at this juncture. Last year when I was helping Melody Hallman Daniel (who did an awesome job on the voice-over for the first commercial!) with some filmmaking she made sure the lunches we had were pretty light, 'cuz according to her - and it makes a lot of sense - eating a lot increases the levels of serotonin (I think) in the brain i.e. makes one tend to be a little slow/sleepy. That's good advice and I've tried to bear it in mind whenever doing something that might demand some attention.

So after we got this kid fed (Michael doesn't give a flip about the serotonin levels in his brain) we headed into western Rockingham County. We did a few precincts, including Bethany: which I've always thought of having one of the most urban mindsets for a place so admittedly rural in geography. We were at Bethany Civic Center for almost an hour. Then we got on Highway 65 toward Wentworth then took 87 to Eden, where we did some stops there.

Along the way we had a pretty wild range of music we listened to: "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash, "Walking Around In Women's Underwear" by Bob Rivers, "I'm Alright" by Kenny Loggins, and some stuff from my peculiar collection of showtunes, including the opening theme to the old Charlton Heston movie The Omega Man (horribly dated film but I've always liked it: when the Apocalypse come this is the music that I'm going to be listening to while I drive around the wasted landscape).

So we get to Eden and while we're at this one precinct, about 5 o'clock my cellphone rings. It was Eric Smith, a fellow school board candidate (he's one of those that produced some of the offbeat commercials that have been running this past month on WGSR, and a really nice guy). He asked me if I'd heard the news. I said no, and he tells me: another school board candidate turned himself into police after being caught taking down campaign signs. At this time I won't comment on what my thoughts are on this matter.

So not long after that, Michael and I decided we had done as much as we probably could, and we needed to get inside and warm and dry and I did especially 'cuz the rain had thoroughly soaked the seat of my pants! We got back here a little while ago. He's back to playing Gamecube again and Lisa is gonna make lasagna for dinner for all three of us. Then I have to take Michael back home to Greensboro and then...

...then, I don't know what else is going to happen tonight.

I'm still debating what to do: go to the governmental center, go to this candidates' party at the Pennrose Mall, go to the TV station I work at and probably be held hostage by the general manager until I give some kind of interview (especially if I wind up winning a seat), or... yes, maybe just come back here and spend a nice quiet evening at home. I haven't decided yet.

Okay well, that about wraps it up for this report, but there will be a couple more in the next few hours. Who knows, I might even have something fun to post then :-)

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ELECTION DAY: 12:35 PM EST

Back again, this time from spending almost two hours at Monroeton Elementary a few miles down US 158. This was my original precinct when I first registered to vote. Monroeton is also the school that Lisa is the music teacher at. While we were there Mom came to vote (I guess she's voting for me :-) One of Tom Schoolfield's poll workers let Michael borrow an umbrella, since his hoody was starting to get slopping wet from the drizzle, and that was really nice. Also saw quite a few other people I know but hadn't seen in awhile.

Okay, well...

While I was there I thought it would be neat to see my wife. The thing is, they're using HER classroom for the polling site! So not only is my wife dislocated from her regular classroom today but because I'm a candidate I'm legally not allowed to get too close the the place. Lisa came out about 11:15 to see how we were doing (it's still VERY cold and rainy) but I just had to see my girl again before we left. Well, turns out everything is cool so long as I took off my candidate name tag and we left our signs in the car. So we got to hang out for a little while with her during lunch after all. Here she is in the classroom she's temporarily using today:
We headed back a little before 12:30. Michael and I have opted to take a break for lunch (although he's actually right now immersed in another Gamecube game: this time one from the Legend of Zelda series) and then hit some precincts to the north and west. One thing that is surprising me somewhat: apart from two other candidates, we've seen no one working the polls from the other school board campaigns. That's probably due to nothing more than the fact that this is an at-large election, whereas before under the all-district plan it would have been much easier to work the polls in your respective district. It's much harder to mount a campaign and have volunteers in place at all the precincts throughout the county, throughout the day. I'm expecting more campaigns to be represented as the afternoon progresses.

That's all for this report. Now let's see what we can scrounge up for lunch...

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ELECTION DAY 10:27 AM EST

Back at homebase for a short while. Michael and I drove to Reidsville Middle School a little after 9 this morning. He waited outside while I went in and voted. And lemme tell ya: that was hands-down the most surreal moment of my life... and that's saying something! Seeing my own name on the ballot like that, it seemed so weird. Then I went back outside and it was still raining, as it has been all morning. I had no umbrella but Tom Schoolfield, one of the candidates for County Commissioner came by a short while later and let me have one that he had: wasn't that nice? :-) I think it's like a promotional umbrella but I don't care: it keeps the rain of of ya right? Well anyway, after voting I went back behind The Line (the one beyond which no campaigning is allowed) and we held aloft some signs and I greeted voters as they went in. We were there for about 45 minutes then came back here for a bit before we head out to hit another precinct. While we were at Reidsville Middle I also met up with Lorie Booth McKinney, another school board candidate (she was in my portion of the televised forum two weeks ago and she did a really great job). Funny thing about this election: there's almost one school board candidate for every precinct in the county :-)

Okay, time for some photos. This first pic was actually taken this morning about 3:10 a.m., at the Bethany Civic Center. I already had one sign there but I deployed another one all the same...
Here's Michael outside of Reidsville Middle School, being a good campaign staffer :-) By the way, the t-shirt I tried to make for him didn't work out that hot (it was one of those self-print, then iron-on deals you can buy in the computer paper section of Wal-Mart and such). But since it's pretty cold out today that's okay: I don't want to freeze my staffers to death ;-)
And here's the pic that Michael shot of me from where he was standing...
Okay, we're gonna head out again. Something I feel almost wrong about saying here, but for sake of completeness I'll add it here for the record: quite a few people at Reidsville Middle told me that they either were going to vote for me or already had voted for me. I mean, that isn't something I'd normally report on, but the sheer number of people who've told me that...

I'm not going to speculate. I'm not going to see things that may or may not be there. But I am very much amazed and delighted at how many have said they're supporting me. But I would have been happy if only ten people said they were going to vote for me. It's just that right now... I'm wondering just how far this might be set to go before this night is over.

Well, I'll leave that to the voters, and to God. For now it's just do what I've always tried to do during this thing: give it my best effort, and let the chips fall where they may. So now it's time to visit another precinct :-)

More later.

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ELECTION DAY: 9:01 AM EST

Well, we're off. For me to cast my own vote and then to visit various polls and stand as close to them as legally allowed.

More later.

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ELECTION DAY: 8:12 AM EST

Bojangles' doesn't take debit cards :-( And we were so hungry for some biscuits from there too. They need to get with the program 'cuz they're losing business to the Hardees down the street (which is where I did get some biscuits). So breakfast is taken care of...

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ELECTION DAY: 7:18 AM EST

Waiting for Michael to wake up but since he fried his eyeballs on videogames until way late it may take awhile. He's a really good kid from church and his parents said it might be a great experience if he got to help me today. Basically I'm going to plop this "Christopher Knight for Rockingham County Board of Education" t-shirt onto him and turn him into a walking billboard for me at whatever polls we go to.

I'm getting ready to eat breakfast and get this day going. Right now the Fox 8 Morning News has some outfit called Power Force on: they're a bunch of born-again Christian musclemen who go to high schools and lay it down for the kids. Here's one of them that was just on the show doing stuff like tearing apart phone books with his bare hands...

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ELECTION DAY: 6:47 AM EST

Forecast is for rain today and a high of around 54.

Considering how weather conditions have been known to have a dampering effect on voter turnout, this may be an election where whatever happened during the early voting may be a big deciding factor. When you figure in a race involving sixteen candidates, all the more so. It's altogether possible that there might be ten or less votes' difference between candidates.

And the polls have now been open for 17 minutes. Here we go, fast and furious...

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ELECTION DAY: 4:42 AM EST

I spent the past almost-three hours driving 70 miles across the county, getting signs up at the last four precincts. They're all covered now.

Remember I said that earlier tonight when it was Michael and me doing this that we were listening to that music from that Christian college group I used to be part of? That's what I listened to all the last little while. I've actually listened to it quite a lot during the course of this campaign. It's really helped to sustain and inspire me through everything. I'm glad I thought to put them all on my MP3 player awhile back. And there's another little bit of music, several songs actually, that a friend from college did years ago that I was listening to a lot during this last trip out into the darkness. That went a long way, too.

In so many ways, I can't help but believe that, regardless of whether I win or don't win, God has really been providing for me the whole way through this. Something really curious that I realized tonight, that had to do with why I couldn't put out signs as much as I wanted to last week... but now I wonder if maybe it was supposed to be that I couldn't put them out then. I might talk more about that later.

Well, it's around quarter-til 5 in the morning, and I need to catch some ZZZs. It's gonna be an interesting day. And I gotta see it through all the way to the end. Will try to file reports periodically throughout the day as I can manage it. In the meantime, please keep me in your prayers: they really are what keep me going.

More later. Me go crash now :-)

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