Vote! + Early Voting Reports.
In light of John Stewart’s plea to young voters, “Do not blow this for us!”, I have an early voting report from Williamsburg, land of hipster waif children,
I just finished voting and was in line for about 45 minutes. However, those who predicted that the young and first-time voters would not show up, are wrong. They showed up in en masse (no early voting in NYC). Nearly 85% of those in line were under 35 and many, including the young woman in line next to me, are voting for the first time in a presidential election.
In other news, posting today will mostly be dedicated to the election. Although I don’t think I’ve mentioned this explicitly on the blog, but it probably won’t come as a surprise to regular readers that I am a Barack Obama supporter.
Something to note.
My neighborhood, Ditmas Park, has in the past year undergone a dramatic gentrification.
I’ve lived there for 6 years and have always voted 2 blocks away at the local elementary school.
This morning I went to vote as always.
They told me and my roommmate that this is no longer our precinct. I then noticed multiple groups of people being turned away. NO NOTICE was sent to any of us in the neighborhood. The new location was now over a 20 minute walk away. I demanded an affidavit to vote there. To say the least, I did not expect this in NYC!! But I had to go through 4 different reps who didn’t know what the f’ was going on before I got to someone who knew what was happening. Many other people walked away. So it’s important for people to fight when you’re turned away. Now my roommate says when she left her affidavit and filled in printed ballot that they then told her it will not count unless it is a machine vote. Some serious shit going down today here in Brooklyn.
This is what I read via Hrag at Scripting News if you have trouble voting:
1. Don’t just walk away.
2. Only as a last resort should you accept a provisional ballot
3. Call 866-OUR-VOTE or go to 866OURVOTE.org to get information on where to vote and the facts on your right to vote. A trained team of advisors is available to help you resolve your problem.
http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/10/25/doYouKnowWhatToDo.html
Annnnddd… drum roll… you can’t get through to that telephone number!!
It clicks you off when you dial.
You can report problems via the website too.
Thanks for link. I eventually got through with a 411 Vote volunteer much later in the day– had to leave a voicemail. They helped on the basics of the affidavit I had to file. Just for curiosity, I went back to the polling station tonight. It turned out the entire District 85/44 had massive problems. The polling location was changed and NO ONE was informed. The two workers at the station told me tonight “Today was a complete disaster.” Elderly voters were forced to walk 20 minutes away to the new location, crossing the extremely busy Coney Island Avenue!
I’m going to go in person to Kings County Election Committee on Adams Street this week to find out what went wrong and get some answers. My name and many others in my neighborhood were also dropped from the voting registers.
You’re only supposed to be dropped if there is a very long time between votes– I last voted in Spring ‘07. That’s not long enough to be dropped from what I know of. Other stories heard today– friend waited an hour and 15 minutes in line in the village this AM to vote. My Starbucks server waited 3 hours in line today in the Bronx and sure enough, 2 of the machines were broken.
Oly