i hope today shall be boring (until about 9 p.m. CT, that is)

For one day, today, I will be part of the biggest law firm in the state of Missouri. For one day, 1,300 lawyers will join forces across Missouri. Who are we? The Missouri Voting Rights Team.

There will be one or two of us, sporting garish lime green t-shirts outside each key precinct. We've been trained in Missouri election law.

While I usually love to jump into the thick of a good battle, that's not my goal for tomorrow. My hope is that I will have a spectacularly boring day and that the system will work exactly as it ought.

I have to be at my polling place, in an unfamiliar suburb, 30 minutes from my home, at 5:30 in the freeking morning. And I have to stay at my polling place until the last person votes, sometime after 7 p.m. Can you say, "Ooooh my Gawd?!?" We have to bring all our meals and water for the day.

And did I say my spot is outside? A minimum of 14 hours sitting in a lawn chair, chatting with pissed off voters in a big 'ole line. Sounds fun, eh?

Factoid...yesterday morning, Biden spoke at the exact polling place I have been assigned. Key spot, much?

Seriously.

I'm excited to be doing this. Not because I want to kick ass. But because sometimes I just want to do something good with this license I've got. Because while being the big ole' corporate lawyer has its perks, it ain't always fulfilling. It's nice to be able to donate a day and know that if something goes wrong, I can fix it. Or try to fix it. Maybe I'll be able to help the system work for some poor soul.

I'm getting a lot of grief from co-workers and Car-man about how I'm doing this for the Democratic party. Yes, yes, this is an effort coordinated by the Obama campaign. But just a couple of points...(1) the Republicans aren't making any such effort (and believe me, most of my clients fit in the "R" category) and (2) we are lawyers. Now you are scratching your head about point two and thinking, "Did she leave something off her sentence?" No. I did not.

Here's the thing about lawyers. Sure, some of us are money grubbing asshats or ambulance chasing, back-of-the-phone-book idiots. But lots of us started off as idealists, thinkers who wanted to make the world a better place. People who read the "Brethren" and were impacted by it. Who wanted to live that life. Who could see themselves upholding our Constitution and protecting the downtrodden. Somewhere between a mortgage-worth of student loans and some recruiter waiving a huge salary in front of our noses, we veered off that idealistic course...but we still wish we did more. We still want to make a difference.

In the process of becoming lawyers, we learn to represent both sides of a dispute. We are trained to represent people dispassionately. Which means, for most of us, it really won't make a bit of difference if we are helping elephants, donkeys or puppy dogs standing in that line. We'll give the same advice. It is all the same law. So that's what I mean with point number two...we want to make a difference but, as long as we are helping, it matters little who we are helping. It merely matters that the person needs our legal help.

So tomorrow, if possible, I'd like to make a difference. And I don't care if I help a Republican or a Democrat enforce their right to vote. I just don't want to wake up on Wednesday and hear that some local election authority screwed up again.

I want the system to work.

Keep your fingers crossed that all 1,300 lawyers in the Missouri voter protection program have a terribly boring day tomorrow. Actually, keep your fingers crossed that all lawyers working voter protection across the United States have a boring day tomorrow.

Get out there and vote, peoples. Make the system work.

And hopefully, I will have no good tales to share with you on Wednesday.