Eat or Vote?

There was a nicely dressed man hanging around the church hall as I walked up to the door. He asked me, “Fulfilling your democratic duty?”

I nodded, “That’s right,” and I stopped to take some photos of the church entrance.

Another man, who was obviously a transient, walked up toward the entrance.

The first man told him, “Lunch is in the back this week.” (A community lunch for the homeless is served at the church every Tuesday afternoon.)

“What?”

“The community lunch is in the back of the hall this week. They’re voting in front, so we’re serving lunch around back. You can enter over there.” He pointed around the side of the building.

“Oh, right.” The homeless man shuffled across the lawn toward the back door.

Presumably the man at the door recognized the other man from past lunches and could assume that was why he was there. But why couldn’t he have been there for both lunch and voting? Lunch was being served almost every time that I’ve voted there, and I’ve never considered the apparent lack of overlap between those who were there to eat and those were there to vote.