Voter Problems!

Yesterday was a day that many of us may never forget. But for some, it was much more frustrating than anything else. After I cast my ballot in the Town of New Windsor I realized there was no one there for me to interview considering I was one of 3 people voting at the time, and one of them was my mom. So I decided to take a ride to the Public Works Office with my boyfriend so he could vote.

Well needless to say, that was the first of our three stops that day to figure out where he was supposed to vote. CanIVote.com said that there is where he needed to be, but they sent us over to the Newburgh Recreation where they told us we needed to go back there and not leave until they let him vote. The young girl helping us decided to make a call and find out what was going on. Turns out it was the Newburgh Firehouse that we needed to go to because he has moved since first registering. I guess it didn't matter that he went to the DMV about five months ago to change his address on his registration.

So there we were, three places later, well over an hour later, and the old women working these polls had no idea what they were doing. Each women, a total of eight, asked him his last name and address. By the time lady number seven came up to ask, I was ready to explode. After figuring out what district he now belongs too, they told him he had to fill out an Affidavit ballot because they did not have his correct address. So in the end, he did not get to enter the voting machine, but instead sat down with a cardboard box surrounding him and filled out his vote on a mail-in ballot.

What I found to be so bizarre about this situation is that this is not his first time voting. Not only has he voted in the 2004 election, but also has voted numerous other times for local politics. The difficulties we went through yesterday made him not even want to fill out that paper. Good thing he is so calm that it didn't annoy him as much as it annoyed me.