"I VOTED", page 2

WORST VOTING EXPERIENCE EVER!!

From start to finish it took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to cast my vote.

Here's how it went: I walk in and wait on a short line to be directed to my correct district. I had to repeat my address 5 times to the imbecile at the desk, and she was so incompetent she needed assistance from the even bigger imbecile sitting next to her. The big imbecile then proceeded to send me to the WRONG district, let's call it E.D. XX.

I try to find the line to get my ballot and run into CROWDS of people in no distinguishable order. They crammed SEVEN districts into one tiny elementary school basketball court, and chaos wouldn't even begin to describe it. After asking several random people what district they were waiting for I could make out the lines for E.D. XW and XY. Common sense would dictate that the line for "XX" would be between "XW" and "XY" right? WRONG.

Anyway, I sensed that I had been sent to the wrong district and I wasn't about to wait on a crazy long line only to be told that my name wasn't in the book. I got on line for "XW" and called home to double-check. Turns out I was actually in district "XW". Come to find the big imbecile at the front desk did that exact same thing to several of the people in my vicinity.

So I'm finally on the right line, and I think great, I'll just be patient and everything will be fine. Wrong again. I swear, the line moved 5 feet for every 15 minutes. Not only that, but they were so poorly organized that they intersected with other lines. After 40 minutes of waiting on line XW it made a sudden right turn, and me, following the people in front, as one does when they are on a line, somehow ended up on line XX!

Thankfully a poll worker realized the problem and restored order, sorta. I retained my general place in line but there was a lot of line cutting, and pushing. It was madness and I swear this one lady tried to pick my pocket. For the most part the people around me handled it well considering the circumstances. No altercations broke out while I was there, though several people made comments that one might. The lady behind me commented that this years turn out was waaaay more than the last election.

Finally, at long last it's my turn to get my ballot. I hand the lady my ID which very clearly has my name on it and she goes, "So your name is E-R-O-W-A-N-M?" Oh God. Really? I applied to be a poll worker and never heard back. I think they only employ illiterates, apparently.

So I get my paper ballot and I'm happy, but how the hell am I supposed to fill it out? I went to the Board of Elections website prior to coming to the poll site so I would know what to do. They were supposed to give you a "special marking pen." BS! Not even a damn BIC was provided. The lady was like, "Well, maybe you can get a pen from someone else."

I did get to borrow a pen from a nice random woman and proceeded to fill out my ballot up against a damn wall. The little privacy booths were stationed right in front of the massive throngs of people waiting to get their ballots, and I felt it was pretty pointless to push my way all the way back there again. Regardless, filling it out was pretty easy as I already knew who I was going to vote for. But let me tell you, the print on the ballot was super small, and many of the elderly and vision impaired must have had a difficult time reading it.

The last leg of my journey involved inserting my ballot into the scanner. This was the quickest and easiest part. I was expecting another long line, but all the scanners were actually free. I just slid it is and it said something like "Thank you, your vote has been recorded" Sadly, I can only go on faith that this is so.

I am exhausted now, and if this were my first time voting I probably would never vote again. I've never experienced anything like this before. I need a nap. Wake me when this election is all over.