It was a night to remember . . .
or . . . what happened to Wednesday?
Otoe County Clerk Gerald Schmitz said he had some words for Secretary of State Allen Beermann in reference to handling elections — No more towns and villages on the same day as the county primary.
We agree with Jerry. Election nights are busy enough, what with the lengthy amendments and delegates, and the towns and villages elections just add to the job.
The county clerk was assigned the job of "running" the elections and he had 200 people on jobs in polls in 25 precincts in the county. Then, he had an additional staff at the courthouse to handle the results and he had one other person who had nothing to do with any of the election chores officially, except to help out. I'm referring to my friend, Elmer Branson.
Elmer takes some friendly ribbing, probably because he seems to be everyplace, but you'll never run across another guy who'll do the things Elmer does.
He's one of those individuals who can do many things and do them well and I doubt he ever takes a nickel for doing them. The Arbor Day committee, for example, knows what Elmer and his wife, Toby, and the citizen band radio operators did to help out with that centennial celebration.
The night I came to the News-Press to talk with Art Sweet about going to work for the paper was the night of the jailbreak at the courthouse. Art and I raced to the courthouse and there was the sheriff, Ralph Hall, who had been beaten by the men. Next to him and on the two-way sheriff's radio helping set up roadblocks was, yes, Elmer.
Elmer was a right hand for Jerry Schmitz on election night. I lost track of time during the night, so I'm not sure when Elmer went home. It must have been near 4 a.m.
The News-Press crew moved into the courthouse shortly before 8 p.m., Tuesday to begin its "election night reporting." Elmer was already there helping the county clerk.
Three News-Pressers worked at the courthouse election night — Larry Parker, John Quinlan and myself. Larry handled the phones at the News-Press office on city and school election results until he was relieved by Art and Marguerite.
As the results were reported to the clerk's office, the News-Press crew recorded them in books at the same time as Marcina Cody, Janis Kinnison and Wilma Polston.
The News-Press crew also served as the reporters for what you heard and saw on news reports election night as we have done for many years. That meant double duty. We had to get our "stuff" together and, thanks to Treasurer Wilma King, report the results to Omaha and New York from the phone in her office.
Since it was also election night for towns and schools, there were additional reports to handle. As soon as we got the Nebraska City results, we reported them to the News-Press office where the phones were ringing by News-Press readers who wanted to know the results. That job lasted until about 11:30 p.m. The final report didn't come in for about three more hours.
In addition to recording the results, we had to sub total them and check and re-check to make sure they were accurate. We all wrote stories as results were completed.
Larry went home about 1:30 a.m. He had to get to work Wednesday morning to start calling around to pick up results not reported to the courthouse.
John went home at 3:30 a.m., and Jerry, Joe Kafka of KNCY and myself stayed with it until the last report came in at 4:50 a.m. Then, there was the final adding of columns and reporting to Omaha and New York.
It was 5:40 a.m., when Jerry and I walked out on the drive on the south side of the courthouse. It was a gray dawn. We were pooped.
I mailed in written reports to Omaha and New York to back up the telephoned results and turned on the lights at the News-Press. There were a few items to be written that hadn't been completed during the night.
It was 6:30 a.m., when I got home. Millie had left the light on on the carport.
Well, now what? It was too late or too early to go to bed. So, I took a bath, shaved and laid down for 30 minutes. After a hefty breakfast, it was back to the News-Press.
John went home shortly after noon Wednesday, slept a couple of hours, covered a track meet, got interested in a TV show and settled down after midnight. Larry went home about 2 p.m. Wednesday and said he slept from 7:30 p.m. Wednesday until dawn Thursday.
I went home after the press run, slept two hours, had soup and a sandwich for my "flippy" stomach and called it a night after the night TV news.
The courthouse crew? The gals left about 3:30 a.m., Wednesday and opened the office at 8 a.m. Jerry Schmitz was at the post office when I was returning to work. He was smiling but tired.
Somewhere along the line, all of us lost a day.
There is a bright side to the whole story.
All of the preliminaries are out of the way in a primary and there are no more town and school elections.
The November general election ought to be a snap.
Betcha we won't get that day back, though.