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Voting in Ohio
Nov. 6th, 2012 08:00 amI am an Ohio voter. Not only that, I am a SUPER voter! My polling places have ranged from the public library to an Elk's Lodge, all of which were perfectly adequate to downright nice to vote in.
Until today.
I am disgusted with how the polls are being handled in my district. The new polling place for my newly gerrymandered district is located in a very bad part of town, had woefully inadequate parking, only one entrance/exit with doors that swing in and don't stay open, and far, far too many people inside. There are two districts shoved into that little space. There were supposed to be two lines, but they were not delineated in any way. People coming in have to first find out which district they're supposed to be in (they've changed since last time) and then find which line they should be in. The table with the volunteers that help people find out which district they belong in was blocked by voters. It is very disorganized and people were getting frustrated and angry. I arrived at 6:30 a.m. and had to wait an hour because there weren't nearly enough poll workers and they can only handle one voter at a time. I was shocked at how few voting booths we had, but since they were taking voters so slowly, most stood unused for long periods of time. By 7:30, my district had serviced only 43 people. THIS ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH.
I felt bad for my poll workers. They're the same people who handle the local elections. You'd think for a Presidential election, they would have been given more help. Maybe they didn't get enough volunteers? In any case, there are too many voters for these volunteers to handle. And that's despite everything that would keep a voter away from this particular location. I know I didn't enjoy walking a block in a high crime area in the dark.
Expect to hear more of the same throughout the day from other parts of Ohio.
Until today.
I am disgusted with how the polls are being handled in my district. The new polling place for my newly gerrymandered district is located in a very bad part of town, had woefully inadequate parking, only one entrance/exit with doors that swing in and don't stay open, and far, far too many people inside. There are two districts shoved into that little space. There were supposed to be two lines, but they were not delineated in any way. People coming in have to first find out which district they're supposed to be in (they've changed since last time) and then find which line they should be in. The table with the volunteers that help people find out which district they belong in was blocked by voters. It is very disorganized and people were getting frustrated and angry. I arrived at 6:30 a.m. and had to wait an hour because there weren't nearly enough poll workers and they can only handle one voter at a time. I was shocked at how few voting booths we had, but since they were taking voters so slowly, most stood unused for long periods of time. By 7:30, my district had serviced only 43 people. THIS ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH.
I felt bad for my poll workers. They're the same people who handle the local elections. You'd think for a Presidential election, they would have been given more help. Maybe they didn't get enough volunteers? In any case, there are too many voters for these volunteers to handle. And that's despite everything that would keep a voter away from this particular location. I know I didn't enjoy walking a block in a high crime area in the dark.
Expect to hear more of the same throughout the day from other parts of Ohio.