Election Night Potluck Committee Bans Deviled Eggs for Seventh Year; Yolk Caucus Holds Rival Gathering

MAPLE COUNTY — The Election Night Potluck Committee has released its official menu guidelines, headlined by the continued ban on deviled eggs — a prohibition dating to the 2019 incident, which committee veterans refer to only as the Incident and which required the deployment of grief counselors to the county annex break room.

Committee chair Susan Delacroix declined to detail the Incident, saying only that it involved 400 deviled eggs, an unseasonably warm November evening, and a refrigerator whose door did not fully latch. The counselors were provided by the county employee assistance program and, per Delacroix, were lovely.

The ban, now in its seventh year, remains the committee’s most controversial rule. A pro-egg faction, calling themselves the Yolk Caucus, petitions for reinstatement annually, arguing that modern refrigeration has solved the problems of 2019. Delacroix’s response is always the same: a long silence, followed by the words, you were not there.

This year’s approved menu includes pulled pork, three kinds of coleslaw, a taco bar (new for 2026), and a dessert table overseen by the Polling Place Bake Sale Committee under a strict crumb-sharing agreement both committees describe as historic. Dishes must serve at least 20, must arrive with serving utensils, and must be labeled with ingredients, a rule added after the 2023 mystery casserole.

The committee has also formalized its crockpot policy: all slow cookers must be labeled with the owner’s name, set to warm (not low) upon arrival, and positioned at least six inches from the ballot-counting observation area, a boundary marked with blue tape and enforced by a volunteer Delacroix calls the Tape Sheriff.

New volunteers are briefed on potluck etiquette: take a reasonable portion, do not hover, and under no circumstances discuss exit polls near the dessert table, a rule born of the 2021 pie-based misinformation episode. The dessert table is a sanctuary, Delacroix said. What happens at the taco bar stays at the taco bar, unless it is relevant to the count.

Setup begins at 4 p.m. in the annex community room. The committee expects 150 attendees, including poll workers, candidates, members of the press, and, per tradition, one state observer who always takes the last piece of cornbread and is forgiven annually.

The Yolk Caucus will hold a separate, private gathering featuring deviled eggs, at an undisclosed location. Delacroix says she knows where it is, wishes them well, and will not be attending, though she admitted the eggs are, objectively, delicious.