Tuesday, November 07, 2006
More Voting Aggravation
Two years ago, before I had my blog, I wrote to my friends about the trouble I had trying to vote. I had a problem getting my absentee ballot, and it took a phone call to one of the television stations to actually get them to send it to me. When I did receive it, it dropped off the ballot at one of locations for early voting, and since that was on Halloween, the poll workers were wearing costumes -- clown costumes.
This year, I again requested an absentee ballot, for a number of reasons. First, I don't trust the touchscreen voting machines, where there is no paper trail. Second, I wasn't sure at the time what my work schedule would be, so this way I wouldn't have to worry about being late to work because I was standing in line or risking getting to the polls too late. Third, no standing in line for who-knows-how-long. (When I dropped off my ballot in 2004, there were probably 200-300 standing in line for the early voting.)
Since early voting ended Sunday, I figured I would drop it off at the library on my way to work -- just run in, walk past the people in line, drop off the ballot, and run back out. The only difficulty was likely to be finding a parking space.
Yeah, right.
When I got to the library, I was told that they would not accept absentee ballots there. The lady there told me that I could leave it, but they would just throw it out. I told the lady that I had dropped off my ballot there two years ago without any problem, but she insisted that they have never accepted them at the polling locations. I was welcome to stand in line and vote (I'm sure I would have been there for well over an hour), or I could take it to the Supervisor of Elections office in downtown Fort Lauderdale, which would mean fighting traffic, paying for parking, and generally lots of hassle.
I ended up taking the ballot to the Deerfield Beach branch of the SoE office, which is a lot less hassle than going downtown. But I was thinking about my vote two years ago, and I wondered if that ballot had been thrown away. You know, the ballot WHERE I VOTED FOR PRESIDENT. At the SoE office, I started to ask about that, but the woman there -- and this is not a volunteer, but a regular staff member -- told me that they are supposed to accept absentee ballots there. She said that the pollworker "was probably just teasing you." Well, she refused to accept the ballot, so that's not what I would call teasing.
The current SoE was appointed by the governor a couple of years ago because the previous supervisor was deemed incompetent after a number of problems. (No, I'm in Broward County, not Palm Beach County, although I DID live in PBC in 2000.) Apparently there is still some work to be done.
This year, I again requested an absentee ballot, for a number of reasons. First, I don't trust the touchscreen voting machines, where there is no paper trail. Second, I wasn't sure at the time what my work schedule would be, so this way I wouldn't have to worry about being late to work because I was standing in line or risking getting to the polls too late. Third, no standing in line for who-knows-how-long. (When I dropped off my ballot in 2004, there were probably 200-300 standing in line for the early voting.)
Since early voting ended Sunday, I figured I would drop it off at the library on my way to work -- just run in, walk past the people in line, drop off the ballot, and run back out. The only difficulty was likely to be finding a parking space.
Yeah, right.
When I got to the library, I was told that they would not accept absentee ballots there. The lady there told me that I could leave it, but they would just throw it out. I told the lady that I had dropped off my ballot there two years ago without any problem, but she insisted that they have never accepted them at the polling locations. I was welcome to stand in line and vote (I'm sure I would have been there for well over an hour), or I could take it to the Supervisor of Elections office in downtown Fort Lauderdale, which would mean fighting traffic, paying for parking, and generally lots of hassle.
I ended up taking the ballot to the Deerfield Beach branch of the SoE office, which is a lot less hassle than going downtown. But I was thinking about my vote two years ago, and I wondered if that ballot had been thrown away. You know, the ballot WHERE I VOTED FOR PRESIDENT. At the SoE office, I started to ask about that, but the woman there -- and this is not a volunteer, but a regular staff member -- told me that they are supposed to accept absentee ballots there. She said that the pollworker "was probably just teasing you." Well, she refused to accept the ballot, so that's not what I would call teasing.
The current SoE was appointed by the governor a couple of years ago because the previous supervisor was deemed incompetent after a number of problems. (No, I'm in Broward County, not Palm Beach County, although I DID live in PBC in 2000.) Apparently there is still some work to be done.
