2026 Life Logs, Day 290: NO KINGS Vote Early Rally
Date: Saturday, October 17, 2026
Weather: Rain Overnight Ending 10 am, Overcast/Windy Day; High Temp 64, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
The weather today cooperated in that the rain stopped just in time for us to set up things on the Green for today’s rally, but it was overcast, windy, and felt really cold. It was winter coat weather. But 500-700 people braved the weather to attend today’s rally. Vote Early events were happening all across the country today with the soul purpose of getting people excited about voting. Midterm elections do not get the same turnout as presidential elections, and even then in Falmouth we only get about 70 percent of eligible voters. In September for the primary, I think Falmouth got only 20 percent of eligible voters that showed up. I need to do some research to find out what the actual numbers have been in Falmouth over the past 10 years so we can gauge our success with this early voting campaign this year.
Today my job was to be a cheerleader for early voting. There are seven Indivisible Falmouth Steering Committee members, but not everyone is responsible for overall rally planning and execution. One of our committee members is the leader of a group called the Resister Sisters, so she puts her full attention to that group who does stand outs prior to major rallies and then they march down Main Street to the Green to begin the rallies. Another committee member just deals with transporting signs and other gear to and from rallies. Both of those people were out sick today and were sorely missed, but we carried on. Another member deals with getting speakers, writing press releases, and coming up with fun ideas. One of her ideas for today was for some of us to wear ‘bird’ attire to stress the early bird theme. I volunteered to wear a yellow suit on loan from a local theater group, along with feathered bird mask, and wearing a sandwich board advertising early voting. I am sure I looked ridiculous, but as I walked through the crowd handing out the Vote Early bright yellow signs, it seemed to brighten people’s mood. So I suppose I was one of two ‘clowns’ as one other committee member wore a beautiful American Eagle costume. He was our main ‘early bird’.
Jim, our leader who doesn’t call himself a leader, did all of the set up and was the master of ceremonies, introducing each of the six speakers. And after the program, many of us walked to Town Hall carrying our signs advertising early voting which began in Falmouth today. I want to give a shout out to my good friend Karen Baranowski who coordinates the medical team for us. We have safety marshals and medical marshals, and Karen and a group of her friends who are nurses, plus one doctor, come to the No Kings rallies to make sure everyone is safe. Plus, for today we hired one police detail as we did not anticipate as many people as our previous No Kings. They make sure people crossing the street getting to the Green do so safely. It takes a village to put on a big rally and we are so grateful to our Falmouth community for being so supportive.
I arrived at the Green at 10:45 am to help Jim with set-up and got home at 2:30 just in time to take Shadow out and then head to the high school for Jonah’s Homecoming weekend soccer game. By the time I got home from the game, I had been outside in the cold and wind for six straight hours. Then I had to take Shadow out and play ball for a bit. When I finally got inside, it felt so wonderful. Tomorrow, I spend the afternoon door knocking, but thankfully, it is going to sunny and a tad warmer than today.
