Just got back from voting. Um… Worst voting experience ever.
I live in a town that used to be extremely racist. It was a “sundown community” but is now integrated. I grew up a town over. A friend of mine growing up said I couldn’t visit her house because her grandmother wouldn’t approve. It was that kind of place. And still is for some… There’s a home that had a gigantic presidential reelection sign out front since January or February of this year. People still fly police lives matter flags since the first wave of Black Lives Matter. That’s the background for where I live.
So, I drive down the street to the polling place today. Road is closed for construction. I turn a corner to another street that would drop me out at the polling place. Closed, too. Yes, there has been ongoing street work throughout the town, with no warning as to which streets would be closed when, but this seems like a bad day to do it, IMO.
The night before, there’s a message to residents that one polling place is being switched to another location. It’s not my polling place. I expect things to be normal. I roll up to my usual polling place, where I usually breeze in and vote. I’m stopped by someone, a white woman I’ve never seen before, who asks my precinct number. This has never happened before. I don’t know my precinct number, because I’ve never been asked for it before. I tell her that I’ve always voted at this location. (I’ve lived in this town since 2007.) She wants to stop and find me in a list of people.
A white woman comes in behind me. She’s asked the same question. She says the same thing I said, that she’s voted at this place for years. There’s no search, no questioning. She’s ushered over to her usual table, where she checks in.
I’m upset. I tell the woman looking for my name I don’t understand why the other woman gets to go sign in but I have to be looked up. She doesn’t really have an answer; she just finally says I should go over to the table where the other woman went. I tell her it’s not the normal table where I’m signed in. She gets exasperated and tells me to go to my usual table.
I do not live in a red state. I do not live in the south. I’m not surprised this happened in 2020, but I expected better.
If you can vote, go vote. Don’t accept any excuses or stalling. Don’t let your voice be suppressed. 866-OUR-VOTE still exists. Use it if you have to. <3
janainaart
stormborns
blakekathryn
annaxmalina
