I had an eventful voting experience this morning. As most of you know, I am an early bird, so I was at the polls before 7AM. But my name was not on the rolls! I knew I was registered, because I had double-checked before the Jan. 11 cut off date; in November, I had re-registered to be in the Democratic Party, specifically so I could vote in the primary, and wanted to make sure it "took."
Now the poll workers' first response was that this was somehow my fault. "Did you move recently?" No--I have had the same address for ten years. "Have you not voted here before?"--No I have voted at the same location several times. "Well, when was the last time you voted? If you haven't voted recently, you might have taken off the rolls." I voted in Nov. 2006, in the Congressional race. "There was no Congressional race in 2006." Yes there was--Clinton was elected for a 2nd term. Also, I voted for governor in that race. "The governor was not elected then---he has been in office for 8 years." Spitzer was elected in 2006--he has been in office a year. "Oh. Right. I was thinking of the mayor." I can't believe how upset I was by the end of this conversation--chocking back tears upset.
So, after we determined I was not a complete idiot (and that most of them were), one poll worker offered me a paper ballot. But if my name wasn't on the rolls, I'm pretty sure that ballot would never be counted. So, someone else told me that I could try to get a court order that would allow me to vote on the machines. This sounded like a huge hassle, but I decided to go through with it. This sounds melodramatic, but I thought of Alice Paul on that hunger strike and being force fed in jail, and decided I could spend one day dealing with NYC red tape to make a point. Also, I'm always telling my students they should vote, and I didn't want to go in on Wednesday and tell them I just gave up.
It turns out, getting a court order to vote was incredibly easy. I assumed I would have to go downtown, but there was site set up across the street from the polling place. (This was just my good luck--there are only 3 in all of Manhattan.) Because it was so early, I got to speak to a clerk right away; he told me by noon there would be a line out the door. So I just told him my story (I didn't move, I knew I was registered, etc.) and he filled out the petition. Then a court reporter and a judge came over, and I raised my right hand and swore everything on the petition was true, and the judge signed the order. I told the judge that was much easier than I expected, and she just laughed and said, "Well, you look credible." And my guess if your address is in Greenwich Village and you look like a nice, middle-class white girl, and you explain you know you registered as a Democrat because you did so at the CUNY Women's Leadership Conference, you do seem credible. But other people should get to vote too!
Anyway, so I voted. The poll workers were really sweet when I went back, saying they were happy I was successful. Although, they seemed to be in the process of messing up more people's voting experience. They had to fill out a card for each Democrat and each Republican who voted, and number them. They were only up to 19 on the Democratic side, and they could not keep the numbers straight. They did make me laugh when they were shocked that someone had requested the Republican card--as of 8:15 apparently only one person had voted Republican in NYC 34th district. (They did not say this in front of the voter).
My Court Order
My request for a court order
My Judge (I wasn't sure if I was actually allowed to take a picture in a federal building.)
7 comments:
What a story- that is really alarming.
I just got back from voting with no incident.
That is great. I worked as a poll worker in 2004 and I was really lucky that the person in charge at my site was awesome and bent over backward to make sure everyone got to vote. Sadly I won't get to vote till March 4th.
After this experience, I think I am going to volunteer as a poll worker or watcher next year. I have to say the poll workers here were not too impressive.
It is great that you stuck with it though and I'm glad it worked out for you. A friend of mine's name was missing from the lists during the last presidential election and he had to traipse all over and wasn't done until the polls closed and he was pretty sure that his vote wasn't going to count anyway. He was very discouraged and somewhat suspicious because it was happening to a lot of people in his none too affluent neighborhood.
Kate -- I think you should send this story to the NY Times and/or to Hillary herself as well as whoever runs the polling places.
Peggy Noonan said this morning that that this election will be won by the candidate that voters are willing to crawl through glass for -- your experience may be the bureaucratic equivalent.
(It also makes Oprah helping that lady voter yesterday pale by comparison.)
I like the crawl through glass comment. I just wish Peggy Noonan hadn't said--she is like some horrible cross of Meg Ryan and Ann Coulter.
A lot of people that I know work as poll workers here in the various voting places. I have always wanted to apply for the job when I retire. Now I know I should.
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