No Confidence Vote

I realize that things are much worse in other places, but my confidence in our election system is starting to erode.

This morning, I went to my polling place to vote in the primary. The election judge asks me my name. I tell her, I think it's under Canelos. She asks me if I had a name change, and I explain that yes, I got married but Canelos is still part of my legal name, here is my voter registration card and here is my driver's license that shows both names. She emphatically says she does NOT need to see them, literally pushes them back at me and says, "you should have re-registered." Well, you have my registration under Canelos and I can prove I'm that person, can I vote or not? She hesitates and then in a whisper she says, okay but don't tell *her* and points to the judge at the next table. I sign my paper and walk over to *her* to get my ballot, but I can't help wonder, what if I had been lying? She didn't even check!

At that point, I am told that the paper ballots that they have are wrong and everyone has to use the electronic machine. Now, I'm fine with the machine (ours print paper confirmations), but I know some people are not, yet they had no choice. Meanwhile, one of the other judges says oh no, I just called the county and they said you can use the paper ballots, they will just not go through the scanner and will have to be counted manually. Then another judge comes up and says that *he* just talked to the county and they said no, you CAN't they will NOT be counted, while the first judge says, okay but a whole lot of people just voted on the paper ballots, what do we do with those? While they are arguing this point, one of the only TWO electronic machines craps out totally, in the middle of one person voting. They do not know what to do about this, but her card shows "not voted" so they let her start over on the next machine. I wait my turn and cast my electronic ballot, thankfully with no problem.

As I always do, I turn to the judges and thank them for their service to the precinct. One judge says to me, yeah, I think we'll be alright once we get organized. You know, I'm just not so sure you should admit that in front of the voters when the polls have already been open for two hours.

This is NOT the first time I have experienced chaos at this precinct. Last presidential election they could not get the electronic cards to validate and everyone had to wait in line for the only ONE special pen that was allowable for use on the paper ballots.

Am I being too whiney about this, or do you think I should complain formally? Seems like they should have their act together better than this.

No. You aren't being too whiney. Your experience sounds like it was really aggravating. You are well within your rights to complain because they'll need to be organized by the general elections.

We have to present picture IDs now when we vote in Georgia. My wife thinks that's aggravating. :S But, given the large number of alien intruders among us, I'm glad the state verifies our identities. 8) We also have to sign some paper slip before we get to vote electronically. The poll workers take their dear sweet time checking everything before giving us the electronic card to go vote. You'd think they were retired and didn't have anyplace better to be. The freaky-haired pollworker dude made some comment about my signature not being very legible. I'm thinking "pick up the pace" there's a big line AND why do I have to write down my address and attest to me being me in writing when you're looking at my picture ID and you have my address on my license and in the voter roles?

Oh well, maybe Chick-Fil-A should administer our elections from here on out? They are faster and I trust them.

And this is why I vote as a permanent absentee. I can vote at home at my own leisure and not have to deal with these kinds of problems. The only constraint is that the ballot is postmarked by election day

Christine Canelos Welsh said:

I realize that things are much worse in other places, but my confidence in our election system is starting to erode.

This morning, I went to my polling place to vote in the primary. The election judge asks me my name. I tell her, I think it's under Canelos. She asks me if I had a name change, and I explain that yes, I got married but Canelos is still part of my legal name, here is my voter registration card and here is my driver's license that shows both names. She emphatically says she does NOT need to see them, literally pushes them back at me and says, "you should have re-registered." Well, you have my registration under Canelos and I can prove I'm that person, can I vote or not? She hesitates and then in a whisper she says, okay but don't tell *her* and points to the judge at the next table. I sign my paper and walk over to *her* to get my ballot, but I can't help wonder, what if I had been lying? She didn't even check!

At that point, I am told that the paper ballots that they have are wrong and everyone has to use the electronic machine. Now, I'm fine with the machine (ours print paper confirmations), but I know some people are not, yet they had no choice. Meanwhile, one of the other judges says oh no, I just called the county and they said you can use the paper ballots, they will just not go through the scanner and will have to be counted manually. Then another judge comes up and says that *he* just talked to the county and they said no, you CAN't they will NOT be counted, while the first judge says, okay but a whole lot of people just voted on the paper ballots, what do we do with those? While they are arguing this point, one of the only TWO electronic machines craps out totally, in the middle of one person voting. They do not know what to do about this, but her card shows "not voted" so they let her start over on the next machine. I wait my turn and cast my electronic ballot, thankfully with no problem.

As I always do, I turn to the judges and thank them for their service to the precinct. One judge says to me, yeah, I think we'll be alright once we get organized. You know, I'm just not so sure you should admit that in front of the voters when the polls have already been open for two hours.

This is NOT the first time I have experienced chaos at this precinct. Last presidential election they could not get the electronic cards to validate and everyone had to wait in line for the only ONE special pen that was allowable for use on the paper ballots.

Am I being too whiney about this, or do you think I should complain formally? Seems like they should have their act together better than this.

A formal challenge to any results from that polling place should be made. I had to challenge the board of elections in the last presidential election, when my paper ballot was grabbed out of my hand while I was waiting for a booth to open. The claim was that the polling place had closed and no more voting was allowed. I claimed that since I had entered, had my credentials checked and a ballot in hand before the polling place closed that I should be allowed to vote and have my vote counted.