Reply #11: my experience [View All]

[KaliTracy]

I am from Ohio -- and I sent the following letter to several outlets immediately following the election, because, as you'll see from my experience.... something seems a bit rank in Ohio... --

"When I went to vote at my polling place in West Chester, Ohio I was expecting "long lines" as that possibility was repeated several times before the election. I voted in the morning, around 7:30 am, and easily went in and out. When I returned from work around 6:15 and drove down the same street, I saw hardly any cars, and thought that our system had pulled together and worked well.

The next morning, as I heard accounts of people in Ohio waiting one, two, four hours, I began to question what I experienced. It doesn't seem right that we had NO problems in the neighborhood I happen to live in with waiting in lines (a somewhat "affluent"/mostly Caucasian, mostly republican area (Bush rallied here, in West Chester, Ohio with over 50,000 followers), the school district has been rated "excellent" 3 years in a row... etc.)

In my particular polling place there were over 5 punch card machines (I think there were SEVEN, but I'm not certain), and, if I'm not mistaken, the street where I voted there was a school, a church, and a school (all right next to each other), which took voters from different parts of the West Chester neighborhood (and there were other voting places throughout this area as well, as it is a pretty big suburb, with even 2 high schools). In fact, less than a mile down the same road a library was also a polling place, and about a mile the other way was another church, with two areas of 6 machines. At least 24 machines in a one mile strech (17 known for sure, and that's just assuming there were only 2 to 3 in the other places).

Yet, in various parts in Ohio, many areas, some of them other non-affluent areas, or college towns, and some of them closer to the West Chester demographic, only 2-3 voting machines were available at a time at most voting locations, and lines were as long as 4 hours, and of course, that one place in Ohio, over 9 hours. Kenneth Blackwell actually closed/merged polling districts prior to the election. (see below for some links)

When I voiced my concern about this to one of the Local Democratic Headquarters (I emailed several in about a 60 mile radius), a gentleman responded back to my email and stated that in Hamilton county there was about 1 machine per 99 voters, and he thought the problems were Not party specific (as some Mason areas had long lines, and they tend to vote Republican**), and that punch card machines were less expensive, so there were more of them in our area. That correspondence was around the Weekend following the election.

To be honest, I do not know if my district had long lines during the day (which would have warranted such a number of machines in this area), since I was at work. Most people I talked to, such as my spouse and in-laws, etc. who all vote in the same district, said that they didn't have to wait too long when they voted during the day. However, many of my co-workers in Dayton waited over an hour or more to cast their vote.

But my point, and the reason I am stating all of this, is concern for a voting system that is fair and equitable and reliable.

Seems to me, in this day and age, that an equal amount of voting machines could be dispersed to all voting locations -- or am I missing something? I've looked on the Internet for a Voting Location Map of some sort, to see precinct voting place lay-out, amount of machines allocated per precinct -vs. per polling place, amount of people allocated per polling place, etc., but have yet to find anything. I'm trying to "breathe deep" and just carry on, but I also feel that in order to STOP any problems from occurring again next time, that everyone, republicans and democrats alike, need to look at how voting places are determined, and arrange for equality in dispersing the machines. Simply allowing more people to vote absentee will not solve the problem, since there aren't any checks or balances that take place once the ballot is sent (often with Political Party Markings) -- nor will ignoring the fact that throughout the state, as well as the nation, there were significant anomalies with the voting process that just can't be brushed away as insignificant.

In terms of waiting -- I personally could have waited an hour or more (my boss wouldn't have liked it, but I would have done it if necessary and just worked later that night) -- others, needing to pick up children at school, or go to jobs that aren't so forgiving, etc., didn't have this luxury. And, to me, this is completely UNdemocratic. One shouldn't have to make a decision whether or not to stay in line to cast a vote.

It's far more important to ensure that our voting system is fair and equitable and reliable than to simply think the matter is over and done with until the next election. American citizens need to be assured that the process of voting is not something to be questioned, but to be cherished as our right in this democracy."

** I learned further that the reason Mason's lines were long is because, evidently, they didn't update their district counts, even though there has been *tremendous* growth since 2000. One wonders how they did primary polling, or what they learned from those numbers?

I would be VERY interested in seeing how often the machines were used in our area, Hell - throughout the whole state! (franklin county assignments http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/900 )

--
September -- Blackwell tries to limit press in polling places http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/comment0928.html

Ruling overturned: http://www.fac.org/news.aspx?id=14295&printer-friendly=y

Provisional Ballot snafu: http://www.wcpo.com/news/2004/local/09/27/ballots_provisional.html

Challenge snafu (this ended up being in favor of Blackwell, but I'm not sure this link does that) http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/11/01/election2004/12_39_5111_1_04.txt

Here's a story in the Columbus Free Press: Document reveals Columbus, Ohio voters waited hours as election officials held back machines http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/990

Update to this with Statitical analysis http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/914

Voters given wrong information about provisional ballots http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/934

Other things... (the paper weight provision was overturned because of public pressure -- but there were no doubt some that were returned, etc...) http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/810

I also know I read something about the closing/merging of certain precincts prior to the election (because they were going to get electronic machines, which would have "been quicker" but then, they ended up not getting the new machines, but I do not recall if it was on-line or in the press, if anyone has the link feel free to post it.

tracy