Wednesday, January 30, 2008

A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Polls

I don't know why Florida has such trouble with elections.

Yesterday I had to drive all over the place just so I could vote in Florida's primary elections. (See, we decided to hold our primaries early, which caused the democratic party to withdraw delegates from our state PLUS the candidates couldn't do much campaigning here. I don't know what that means, but it seems to me that preventing voters from getting as much information as possible is just not the smartest move in the world.)

Anyways. It was my fault that I didn't send in my change of address to get a new voter registration card in time. The day before the election, I called the elections office to find out where I was allowed to vote. Could I vote in my new precinct, or would I have to drive three towns over to go to my OLD precinct? No one answered the phone there. After awhile I was prompted to "press 1 to leave a voicemail." So I did. I left a message, but no one called me back.

I decided first to go to my *new* precinct, which is just around the corner from where I live. I got Lance all ready to go, attached his kid leash to him so he wouldn't run off, walked into the precinct, explained my situation, and was told I couldn't vote there, that I had to go to the other precinct where I was registered.

I was a little annoyed, but I understand that rules are rules. Later in the day, I went to the old precinct. They were very confused over there. I explained what happened at the new precinct, showed both my voter card and my driver's license, and then I found myself surrounded by 6 elections officials who all had a different idea what I should do. People were waving pieces of paper in my face, some of them telling me to take this paper to the new precinct, and then someone else would promptly yank it out of my hand saying it wasn't necessary. (This happened about 4 times.) I just stood there with a bewildered expression on my face. Finally, I said, "I JUST WANT TO VOTE!"

Someone finally took me over to a voting booth where I was able to cast my vote.

It was crazy.

And they wonder why people don't turn out to vote. They make it such a hassle!!!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is why I became an absentee voter. I could not see myself dragging both kids to a polling place and trying to vote while keeping both kids in check. Knowing my luck I would end up voting for something that I did not want to because the kids distracted me at the wrong moment.

Anonymous said...

Oh my...what a delimma, all to vote. I need to change my address myself, at least before November! :)

Anonymous said...

LOLOL!

OK, first of all, I almost wrote a post *with the exact same post title*!!!

Second, I think you should create a button to share that says, "I JUST WANT TO VOTE!"

Anonymous said...

Bummer for you! And you make an excellent point, people would be alot more excited to vote if it wasn't such a big hassle.

Anonymous said...

I will be an absentee voter this fall. 'Cause, well, I'm living in Germany! :)

Anonymous said...

Oh how frustrating. I am glad it all worked out. I couldn't believe how many lines I had to stand in this time. It was definitely more of a process than normal.

Hugs,

Susan