Days 3 & 4 of Early Voting

On Friday 10/17 I arrived at 10am and stayed until 12:30pm. It was another big day with 1,357 total votes for the day. The day before had clocked 1,306 but I didn't go that day (went to the Jack Daniel's Distillery instead - yee ha!). Despite the line the average waits in line were 12 – 15 minutes and then once they got to the counter it took on average 2 minutes for the clerks to look them up, validate them and print their voter “application”. Hal Sauer, the poll station officer, told me there were about 20 people in line at opening.

A very distressing incident did happen while I was there. A chic African American woman was delayed substantially at the registration check in (at least 15 – 20 minutes) because her signature on her Driver’s License didn’t match how she had signed her voter "application". I heard the poll worker say at one point “I just don’t want your vote to be disqualified.” Hal was called over and the woman did finally get to vote and I spoke to her outside. She said that a) she’s voted here before with no problem and b) she thought the poll worker was “too elderly for the job.A little soft in the head.” Now WTF was that all about? Who is going to be checking signatures once this woman votes. And she's got a valid driver's license with her - with a photo. I mean is it her or isn't it? Signatures change and graphology is a mixed bag at best from a positive ID standpoint. I can't stop fuming over this - it really seems like that insidious, embedded racism that, in my opinion, all whites in authority have to guard against. I didn't see anyone hassling any white people about their signatures matching. I am going to pursue this iwth the Election Commission - just to get it on record.

On Saturday 10/18 I was there for opening. There were 41 people in line and by 8:45 112 votes had been cast. But by 8:23 the rush was over and it was just two’s and three’s coming in with long periods of no one coming to vote. However at 8:43am a 30 - 40 yr old man came in demanding a provisional ballot so that there would be a paper record of his vote. Denied that, he voted on a machine and then made a loud scene about how the second vote request in the program was a possibility for fraud because that confirmation did not show how your votes were being cast. Frankly I agree with him – it is a sloppy system and with no paper record it does seem open to fraud. That said the guy made an unnecessary racket there – it’s the Election Commission not the individual polls that are to blame here.

Also I met Carol Little the Republican poll watcher for this station and she is a genuine pest.Gives anyone that will stand still long enough an earful about whatever is crossing her mind at the moment. In response to my somewhat laissez faire statement that I didn't have a fixed schedule to be at the polls she found it necessary to say "well I guess the Republicans are just more organized than the Democrats" - clearly evidenced by how well the McCain campaign has been going. And I had just met the woman! Her personal raison d’être as a poll watcher is to look for anyone wearing campaign paraphernalia and to try to get them disqualified from voting (especially if it’s an Obama button). She’s there everyday from noon – 2 or from 2 – 4 when the polls are open ‘til 8pm.I'm sure I'll have conference calls during those times.

The down time on Saturday gave me a chance to quiz Hal and some of the other poll workers more carefully. Here’s how they’re running the operation there: the signs outside were put up the first day and will stay up throughout the election season. At the end of the day they close the lids on the voting machines (but do not turn them off) and place the PEBs on the little card table they have set up in the room. On Saturdays they will power down the machines. A note on ADA accessiblity – there have been 3 or 4 wheelchair bound voters that I’ve seen. They are assisted by Hal usually at registration and are then seated at the card table and a poll worker takes one of the voting machines (its just a tablet computer) out of its booth and sets it up on the card table and it seems to work fine.

I'll post results for Saturday on Monday. Y'all get out and VOTE!