[image description: photo of me outside of voting poll location, in my motorized wheelchair. I am holding up via my spastic arms, the I VOTED sticker and posing next to the voting signs that direct people where to enter. One of them has a blue and white wheelchair symbol. The other one reads vote here (in multiple languages) with a black arrow pointing right] (photo credit: lizzie my HHA)
The above photo was taken today, Election Day right during my attempt to vote. Allow me to explain.
I wrote this 21 hours ago on social media:
Just for shits & giggles, I double check to make sure that I am still registered ‘cus #VoterPurgesHappen. According to the website, there is no record of me being registered.
[image description: a screenshot of the BOE website when I looked up my voter registration status, only to find that for some reason I am not registered.]
I call up the New York County Board of Elections who doesn’t even check + just says “you’re registered” (My speech impediment was in effect and I got the impression that this person just wanted to get off the phone)
My HHA called (with no speech impediment) + got more of an answer. The woman said that although my mailing address is where I live now, I am still registered to vote at old address in Brooklyn - + thus even though I’ve been voting in Manhattan since 2013, now all of a sudden, I have to go to Brooklyn to vote
The woman was less than courteous but after my HHA said we have the physical card from 2017 telling us where to vote and that I was able to vote successfully IN MANHATTAN (in previous years), she said then I shouldn’t have a problem. But it’s odd since she JUST told us, I’d have to go to Brooklyn
First of all, I am disabled and mostly bed bound so just physically getting to the polling location in my neighborhood is a big to do. I would have no way to get to Brooklyn even on a good day. If I vote tomorrow and I am turned away 'cus the BOE screwed up, it is a trip in vain
Second of all, what the hell. I have been literally voting for YEARS in Manhattan and now all of a sudden, something has changed? Something is not right.
When i went to vote today, with the assistance of my home health aide, Lizzie, I wasn’t even sure if I would be allowed to vote.
I went to my usual polling place, with proof of my current address in hand. Proof of the 2017 voting card that I got in the mail last year (but for some reason never got my 2018 card). I had proof of ID and more. They had me on record voting successfully from the years before and yet I was not on record for this year. .
The volunteers at the polling place were very kind and suggested another person’s record of the same name got confused with mine, but that didn’t seem right as they had me listed as my old address in Brooklyn, not some stranger’s address.
In the end, I was given a ballot and an affidavit. Meaning that while I could technically vote, I was not allowed to scan my ballot as usual. I had to place my ballot in the affidavit envelope, and pretty much go on faith that it would be counted, as I handed it to the volunteer. I was also not allowed to take a photo of my ballot, the affidavit and nor did I receive any kind of receipt that I voted, other than the I VOTED sticker that everyone gets.
Don’t get me wrong. The volunteers (unlike the person at the BOE) were very nice but what kind of voting system do we have, where I basically have to rely on faith and trust?
[image description: a photo of me laying in my hospital bed recouperating after the trip out. I am laying on purple bed sheets and am holding up the I VOTED sticker with my spastic arms ]