What the hell is this lady’s problem? 
All Bull wants to do is his civic duty: casting his vote for the school levy. Did he do or say something offensive just prior to this scene? Not only is old Pineapple Head Lady threatening him, her fellow poll workers look on with expressions of shock and disgust. I almost feel sorry for Mr. Bushka.
I just like the Popeye Legs on the voter in panel 2.
SoSF urges you to exercise your right to vote today!
Son of Stuck Funky 
All I can figure is that TB thinks grouchy old people are inherently funny regardless of what they say, like how he believes rain makes everything funnier. I usually “get” FW (or at least I “get” what the joke is supposed to be) but this one is a real puzzler. Why is the anon-o-character threatening voters? Why is Grouchy Guy in the blue shirt shooting Bull the stink-eye like that? What’s the story with the woman on the left? Is she on something, did she recently suffer a concussion, or what? Why would these people volunteer to work at the polls if they hate the whole process so much? I’m baffled.
Gonna be a long, long week if he’s already trotting out the one-panelers. Good grief. He did a fine job with the bricks, though.
I’m more worried about the calves on the woman in the voting booth. Seriously, when my legs looked like that it turned out to be preeclampsia.
Also, Epicus, leave it to Tom to draw that one guy entering the voting booth so that it looks like he’s staring out his front window ready to yell at the neighborhood kids playing on his lawn.
It just so happens that a school bond issue is on my ballot this fall. The school district is, no doubt, praying that this strip does not influence voters.
Maybe it is to show how cut throat voting can be? That is normally said when a robbery is taking place in some show.
Is this a thing in the real world? Are the old folks who man polling stations inherently mean and evil? Because, in my experience, they’ve always been old and…very accommodating. Quite pleasant, actually. Then again, I don’t live in Westview. So, yeah. Joke not gotten.
ryokomayuka: I think you’re correct, this one really had me stumped. I think the bricks disoriented me somehow, too. I’d be pretty weirded out if I went to vote and was greeted by a 90 year old woman threatening me while two escaped mental patients eyeballed me with uncertain intent. Bull does look shocked, so in that way I suppose this strip is a success in its own unfunny way.
I don’t know how it is in Westview, but here in Texas an election official is not allowed to handle a blank ballot unless assisting a voter who can not enter the voting area for some reason and then only in the presense of the head election official. I worked many local elections and once got in a bit of trouble for handing a ballot to a voter. I was told that wasn’t allowed because it can be seen as influencing the voter or I could be accused of giving them a marked ballot.
Haw, haw! Old people who volunteer to work at polling places are crabby and mean!
Well, this is Westview. She’s probably got cancer or something.
When I was in college my sister and I went to vote and we were chatting and and having a fine time laughing and visiting in line, and when the old lady checked us in she put a little smiley face by our names. (We didn’t see any other smiley faces in the book. It seemed to be special to us). I think of that every time I vote. I don’t think this old lady is in the habit of giving out smiley faces.
There simply is no joy in Westview at any demographic level
TB never even offers potential hope that his characters will ever obtain happiness. They are a damned lot…damned I tell you.
“Why is the anon-o-character threatening voters? Why is Grouchy Guy in the blue shirt shooting Bull the stink-eye like that? What’s the story with the woman on the left? Is she on something, did she recently suffer a concussion, or what? Why would these people volunteer to work at the polls if they hate the whole process so much? I’m baffled.”
It’s because, as typical crotchety seniors of Wretchview, they are suspicious that this chubby pizza pusher is a accomplice of those “teacher types” – and I’m being charitable here- campaigning for the levy. For weeks, they’ve been pissed that a crowd of hippies has been plaguing the neighbors with lame jokes, hawking band turkeys, and littering the neighborhood with mis-information packets. Revenge is a dish best served with stink eye. Worry not suffering fans, the fix is in. Whatever the outcome of the vote, no one will be smiling.
Geez, I think some poor lady hung herself in the booth in panel 2! That ballot lady’s words may be less a a threat and more a plea.