Election 2008 Open Thread

[luna_k]

Y helo thar, neglected political blog. I suck. But I come bearing linkspam!Happy Voting Day! Tell me your voting stories, come spam me with pics of your polling place, or just pull up a chair in general. This is such an exciting day! Even though I'm sick (having thrown up 4 times this morning, ugh) I'm so excited because I think my state (Virginia

Comments

[antigenerique]

I love voting and I've voted in EVERY election {primary and general} since I turned 18. This year was one of the worst years I've ever experienced when it came to my polling place. Here's my story... and I'm sticking to it.

So, to put it lightly, I got FUCKED when I went to vote today. I went through the check-in process and was handed my lovely ballot. I went to the voting booth and I started reading it. "Straight ticket... yeah, no thanks. McCain... Obama... Robert Barr. Wait, who the fuck is Barr?" I then proceeded to look at Obama's line, but totally connected the arrow for Barr. Immediately after I did it, I was like, "Oh shit." and I read the instructions at the top on what to do when you make a mistake. It says, "Take ballot to an Election Official." So, I did. I went up and said, "I made a mistake. I accidentally voted for the wrong person." The lady looked at me and said, "Put it in the machine and see if it reads it. That'll tell us if you made a mistake." I look at her again and say, "I made a mistake. I vot..." she cut in and goes, "you have to feed it into the machine." And I go, "But I made a mistake! I VOTED FOR..." and she cut in again, and said, "You have to feed it into the machine." I got frustrated and I finally fed it into the machine like the stupid lady told me to do and she goes, "Nope, you didn't make a mistake. It counted it." I WAS SO LIVID. I go, "BUT I VOTED FOR THE WRONG PERSON. I TOLD YOU I MADE A MISTAKE." And she goes, "Well, there is nothing we can do now. You've already voted." I was so upset. I, actually, started crying.

My mom went back later and talked to the Democratic Judge -- who happened to the be the SAME lady who MADE me feed my ballot into the machine -- and told her how upset I was. The lady goes, "I'm sorry. It's all my fault." and my mom goes, "you wouldn't even listen to her." And She goes, "It doesn't matter. This is a Republican County anyway." THIS IS THE DEMOCRATIC JUDGE SAYING THIS! WTF? I'm so mad. So yeah, I got to vote for only one thing and it was President and I didn't get to vote the way I wanted to because some STUPID lady didn't know how to do her job, though she told my mom she's "been doing it for years." Ugh. Anyway, yeah. I'm royally pissed.

But other than that, GOBama!!

[antigenerique]

So, just call them up and tell them my story? I mean, what can they really do? I was told by the Election Officials at the Voter Registration office and the people at the polling place that "There was nothing that could be done because my vote was counted and they can't really tell the machine which ballot was mine and to not count it." I'm just really mad that this happened. I plan on calling the Democratic Chair of my county and complaining. If this woman really was a Democrat, I highly doubt she'd say, "Well, this is a Republican County anyway." when my mother told her she just lost a Democratic vote.