having the rest of the crowd signaling stupidity behind the main characters back only adds to the impression.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

(It occurs to me that you may not have "precinct workers" in Europe. They are people who work for a political campaign and are in charge of turning out the vote in a specific neighborhood.)

"Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms." -Dostoevsky