For those of you who remember the 2000 elections, you will remember that this city does not do a particularly good job preparing for the presidential vote. I have a flexible work environment, so I waited until a little bit later, around 9 am to go vote. We recently changed polling places and my new place is at Fanning School, someplace that already leaves a bad taste in my mouth after attending a meeting there a couple of years ago and witnessing a bunch of teachers behaving very badly and spewing some of the worst hate I've ever seen toward our immigrant and refugee population. If we decide to put Nora into this disastrous public school system, Fanning would be her middle school, and there is no way in hell I would send her there, and honestly I'm hoping we will move prior to having to make that decision, because I'm not exactly a fan of the Catholic School system either. Going there to vote doesn't make me happy. Today's experience didn't really make me change that opinion either.
When I got to the school, there wasn't a lot of parking, which really I took as a good sign. I'm enthused about this election, much more so than 2004, and I'm happy people are turning out to vote. Then I got inside - just inside the doors to the gym (where we vote) there was a long line snaking halfway back up the side of the gym and then all they way back down the length of the gym. It was a lot of people. My first thought was, wow. I have never seen this many people standing in line to vote. My second thought was, I wonder if it would be better to come back in about an hour. I stood there for a few minutes, and while there were lots of poll workers standing around no one approached me. Finally I asked one where the end of the line was - I couldn't really get in the doors and see. She asks to see my election card (not everyone brings these to the polls - I just usually do). She then says " Oh hon, you don't have to wait in this line" I don't? "This is for the special election" Special election? "You go to that table over there - the one with the 15 A on it". I can barely see the table, I cut through the lines of people in front of me and amazingly there is no one in line at the THREE tables beyond lines. She takes my card, she doesn't ask to see any ID or the utility bill I've brought with me to verify my address, I sign in, initial my address and the election reps from the two parties initial my signature. She asks if I want paper or plastic. I say I'll take whichever is faster. Amazingly, there are both available right now. I look at her, very surprised I ask: "Why are all those people in line?" She also tells me it's a "special election". I vote and on my way out, one of the voter advocacy representatives asks me how it went - I said it was fine for me, but that I was concerned that having the big long line for the special election right at the door when you come in might make some voters think that they have to stand in it and decide not to vote. She sort of shrugs and mumbles something. I get on the phone to call Jason to warn him about it and since I'm on my way to work and he's off, I'll let him make a more strenuous complaint. At the very least they should have some poll workers who are standing in front of the doors letting folks know that they may not have to stand in line and start asking for precinct numbers right away. But part of me wonders what this special election is and how it can be that different from the other elections - I'm guessing that it is probably and alderman recall (there were several petition drives last spring about this) that affects one of the 3-4 precincts that votes here only. They have to have separate ballots for the different precincts anyway (there are several house districts) so it can't just be a different ballot. I doubt that there are that many more people turning out in that particular precinct - it's the presidential that's turning folks out, not some aldermanic recall. Why is that precinct something special, what is really going on?
But if I thought this was crazy, I was flabbergasted when I came into work and talked to our office manager. She told me that her husband had been standing in line since 5:30 this morning and he called her at 10 to let her know that he had just voted. She has had hip surgery and uses a cane so she walked up to the front of the line and asked if she could vote, and they let her (thankfully!), but as she pointed out - there were other people with disabilities who were still waiting in line, and no one went around and told them that they could vote immediately. This is in the county, and obviously it was a district where they were not prepared for the voter turn out. But in both of these situations, I'm wondering what's going to happen at 4:30 today, when folks are trying to get off work to go pick up kids and go vote - it's going to be impossible. Democratic party is saying that if you get in line by 7pm your vote will be counted, but given that there was a lawsuit about this very thing 8 years ago and this turnout is supposed to be even bigger, I wonder if this will be true? How many people are not going to be able to vote today because they can't stand in line for hours (some folks have to go pick up kids from school/daycare, some folks have to be at work - the three hour dispensation that most folks don't even know that we are allowed, won't help someone who has to stand 4 1/2 hours in line to vote! How many people are going to see the lines and say, I'm not going to bother, my vote doesn't matter anyway? How many people believe, like almost everyone at my co-workers' polling place that using an electronic machine means that their vote won't count, that it will be counted for the opposite party?
As I drove in to work, Diane Rheim had callers call in about their experiences voting today. Once caller summed it up for me completely - the gist of what he said was that in a country that holds itself up as a model of democracy, if we truly believe that we are the "great nation" that we hype ourselves up to be, why is there so much trouble registering to vote? Why do so many people believe that our vote can be stolen from us and why isn't our voting system the cleanest, most efficient, best example ever. We should be that - we have the technology, we have the money, we just don't have the will.
