Choose and Lose: The Day After

Before I get into my voting kerfuffle, Stefan Sharkansky of Sound Politics has a tale to tell that I fear is all too typical of voting in King County.

He was working as a Provisional Ballot Judge at his local polling station yesterday. A man comes into the polling place attempting to vote and during the search for his name in the books the man reveals to Stefan that he has only be residing in Washington State for around 20 days or so. It says right on the provisional ballot that you need to be a resident of the state for a minimum of 30 days to be eligible for a ballot because that is the law, and Stefan informs him of his ineligibility. As the guy begins to leave the polling station the lead Poll Judge comes over and freaks out because she is ignorant of the law.

Read about the rest of it here.

I heard Stefan on one of the local talk stations talking about this episode and still being feisty due to my lack of nicotine, I went directly to RonSims’Ass.Org to see what ‘Count Any Vote’ Goldy had to say about it.

Of course, Goldy accuses Stefan of overreacting to stop the man from committing perjury.

Seeing the misinformation abound, I had to foist myself into the comments before I started work. Landing in the eleventh slot, I explained the portion of the story that Goldy seemed to hope that his readers didn’t find out about. Scroll down a bit if you want a look at liberal hostility to facts and legal voting requirements. I would have responded but there were something along the lines of 100 further comments on the post by the time I was able to make my back to it.

I too had a rather interesting predicament attempting to vote yesterday. Not quite as interesting as Stefan’s though. Would you like to hear about it?

I knew you would.

So I make my way to my normal polling place, the same place I’ve voted since 1997, only to find that the building is being demolished. There was no notification from the elections office either before or since the primary to let me know this was going to happen and I suddenly find myself without a clue as to where to go to vote.

After cursing the incompetent manger of the county elections office, Dean Logan, I proceed to find an out of the way parking spot. I pull out my voter registration card out of my wallet and find the phone number of the elections office and get my cell phone. After working my way through the phonebank game of Russian Roulette I finally get a breather on the line and ask them where the hell I go to vote now that my polling place is being leveled.

The lady on the other end of the line takes my precinct number and my registration number and gives me the address of a private school that has the new polling station in their basement.

To say that the new place is near my old one is to say that the Earth is near Mars. You can get from one place to the other, but you might want to pack a lunch.

Seattle has a very up and down geography and the city planners took it unto themselves to put these things called greenbelts in the most inconvenient places. So after going a couple dozen blocks in one direction I turn east and go a couple more to get around the greenbelt before I can backtrack the distance to get to the new polling station. All this during rush hour traffic along a main thoroughfare that leads to the interstate.

Luckily, I’m a map geek and was able to find the place easily enough, but some signs at the curb would have probably been necessary for the average Joe.

All in all, possible attempted disenfranchisement thwarted by a guy with a brain, some gumption and some modern technology.

So, how was your voting experience?