MinnesotaMel

Election Day celebrations

Living and working on a federal government compound has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the limitations is the famous Hatch Act. At the core, it is a good law. It says that Federal government employees cannot bring their political party and election activities to the workplace. When one is stationed in the US and there is a definite cut off between personal and professional locations, that is pretty straightforward. But when one lives overseas in a federal government compound, where does "personal" time/location begin and "professional" time/location stop? This topic lead to lots of good discussion. Receiving voting materials through the APO was deemed OK, because it is our only means of mail. But having a coffee cup that advocated for a specific candidate or party in the office was deemed inappropriate. The grey area to me, was the apartment buildings. Ultimately, we were not allowed to post anything in the public areas of our apartments, but we could do whatever we wanted within our own apartment walls. (This I found odd, as apartment occupants are NOT allowed to smoke in their apartments because of the law against smoking in federal government buildings.)

Ultimately, a few of us brave early risers woke up and gathered in the internet cafe area to watch the results come in. It was a non-partisan group, though many of us were more elated by the results coming back than others were. Good thing we were allowed to cheer on election day in a federal building as the results came back.

posted by MinnesotaMel @ 4:09 AM