I voted twice this morning - Democratic Underground

lazyriver

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Tue Nov-07-06 09:01 AM
Original message

I voted twice this morning

Edited on Tue Nov-07-06 09:03 AM by lazyriver

I live in one of Maine's Unorganized Territories (UT)and I vote at a polling place in the nearest town. In every election before 2004, I have filled out a paper ballot for my district that is different from the ballots of the organized town in which I vote. We in the UT's do not vote for city office in that town, so when any city office is contested, our ballots are geared to the UT in which we live. Until 2004, all voters at this polling place filled out a paper ballot that was then folded back up and dropped through a slot into a very old looking locked wooden box. Our votes were counted by hand.

For the 2004 election we had for the first time optical scan ballots that were fed into a machine after filling them out. Since no city office was up for grabs in 2004, I filled out one of the optical scan ballots that everyone else uses when I voted in that election.

This year I was handed two ballots by the poll worker after I checked in, one was folded up and the other was a two-sided form designed to be read in the optical scan machine. I asked why I was given both ballots when I believed that I should only receive the one that was not an optical scan ballot. The poll worker (a sweet old lady who has been working the polls for many years) said that the UT residents had to fill out both because of some of the offices that were up for election this year. I questioned her again and said I had never done this before so she checked with another poll worker (a nice old man who was even older than her)and he too insisted I had to fill out both ballots and that they were different.

* Edited to add: I just read Skinner's post listing phone #'s to report problems*

I took my ballots into the booth and filled out the optical scan one first (straight Democratic ticket)but realized that there was a city office candidate listed (a Republican as the only candidate) so I wrote in "Bill Clinton" for that slot. I then flipped it over and voted on our two questions. I then unfolded the second one and it was identical to the first one except that it did not have a city office race listed. I filled it out just like the first ballot, including the two questions on the back. When I was done, I walked back to the registration desk to ask one more time if I was really supposed to submit both ballots. They politely insisted they knew what they were doing and directed me to the optical scanner on the way out of the polling place. When I got there, I explained to the worker overseeing that step of the process why I believed I was voting twice. She really wasn't listening to me and instructed me to run BOTH ballots through the scanner. I unfolded my UT ballot and showed her that not only was it not designed to be read by the scanner, it was also two inches too wide to fit through the feed for the scanner.

I now had her attention. She called over an elderly man (who was not as friendly as everyone else) who appeared to be in charge and started explaining to him my case. He cut her off rather abruptly and said I had to submit both ballots. He opened a slot on the side of the optical scanner that looked like a mail drop box and said I should put my UT ballot in there and the other one through the scanner. I asked him to explain how I was not voting twice by submitting two ballots and he said, "Well, you can't vote twice. Everyone only gets to vote once". He asked to see both ballots, then asked me where I got them. I pointed to the registration table and the worker who gave them to me and he said, "Well, if that's what they gave you, you have to submit both". Getting frustrated at that point (not to mention getting late for work and causing a line of people to stack up behind me)I dropped my UT ballot in the side of the box and fed the Optical Scan ballot into the front.

While I was doing so, another elderly man walked over to see what was going on and began talking to the man that up to that point appeared to be in charge. As I was walking toward the door, this second man asked me what had happened and I explained it to him. He said I was correct and should have filled out the ballot for the UT's only (which he called a provisional ballot) and in fact, I had just voted twice. I asked him if we needed to make a correction and he said we could not since others had already submitted their optical scan ballots behind me and he had no way to "back out one of the votes" or open the provisional box. He assured me he would instruct the poll workers in how to handle UT voters properly. I got his name and have arranged to go back over there at lunchtime today to follow up with him.

If there is a silver lining, I was the first person from my UT to vote this morning and the problem should be corrected for the rest of the election. The UT in which I live is chock full of Don't- take-my-guns-away, Librul-hatin' Repukes. At least the one vote that will be counted twice in my district will be a blue one.

Where should I report this incident? I can only imagine that if happened where I am, it can happen elsewhere.