One day, before I die, it needs to be "...as long as the right person wins!" again.
Election day is here again! There was significantly less personal drama than the last time around, when I wasn't even sure if I could vote. But somehow, a week after Hurricane Sandy ravaged this city (as well as the home of the namesake of this blog), we all managed to get our act together to go out and vote. Then again, on the UWS it was sort of like business as usual and if I didn't have my TV on I might not have known about all the crap my poor tri-state area cohorts were going through.
This year they changed my polling station to a different school. One much closer to me, but one that was apparently a lot smaller. I got to the site at 7:15pm to a line that wrapped around the entire block, which was weird because last time when I got to the polling station at roughly the same time, there was no line at all. Considering it was right around when everyone gets out of work, I wasn't completely surprised. But I wasn't sticking around - it was 40 degrees and I was in heels - I figured I'd go home and wait an hour and come back out. Surely the line would die out by then.
At 8:15, I went back out and no such luck - the line was just as long! This was really weird. Luckily I found my parents in line and hopped in with them. Yes, I cut the line to ensure that I could fulfill my civic duty where it doesn't matter anyway. But honestly - that was the least of everyone's problem. I think it took us about 40 mins to get into the entrance of the school, and once we got to the entrance it was a complete clusterf*ck, which explained the insane line. For one thing, the room was about a quarter the size of the last school's auditorium.
One thing that added to the crowds was much more stringent ID checking this year. My mom's last name was spelled with a "W" while mine was spelled with a "V", so even though the addresses matched our IDs exactly and the signatures matched our IDs exactly, the lady at the table agonized over what to do. My dad's name was spelled right, so we hastily got him his forms and sent him off. After sorting out this mixup, my mom and I finally got our forms. Seeing our names in the registration book but not being able to just get our stuff and go was like coming back from a school field trip where the bus would go right by my house without stopping to let me off because they were required to take everyone back to the school. I'm all for crushing voter fraud but this was mildly nonsensical, but hey I can't blame the lady who has been up and working since 5AM and getting paid only $200.
So we moved 4 years forward but I think we went back in time for this election. First of all, I got a bubble sheet to fill out my vote. A bubble sheet! And in a manilla folder! What is this, 1988? If it wasn't so crowded in there and 9pm, I would have had a flashback to the fourth grade to my scantron days. No one told me where to go to fill it out but I figured it out. There were these sad little tables that had a blinders around them decorated in red, white and blue. Where were my switches? Where was my lever? Where was my curtain?! I felt so exposed! Someone was trying to look over my shoulder to steal my answers! And where were the instructions? Was I supposed to circle the bubble? Put an X on it? Put a line through it? Put a dot in it? Color it in? What if I went outside the lines? Where was my Number 2 pencil? And why was the font so small?! I could barely read the names!
After I figured out who I was voting for (the 3 candidates who were running for the 3 judge seats unopposed - hm, tough one) I put my scantron sheet back into my manilla folder and now had to figure out what to do with it. Was I supposed to fax it somewhere? Someone told me that the scanners were on the other side of the room. So all I had to do was push and shove my way through that. There was actually no line for the scanner so before I fed my votes in I looked around for a unicorn too. I put my page into the scanner - upside down or right side up, it didn't matter and I waited for my results to be sent off somewhere. Finally - one piece of evidence that we're in a modern era - the spinning beachball of death. And then....that was it. The volunteer told me I was done. Dissatisfied, I looked for my mom who was lost in the sea of hangry voters, and brought her to the scanner. We fed her scantron into the scanner as well and waited and then...that was it. We were done. After all that. Did everyone vote like this or was this just New York?
The room still looked like a 3rd world airport as my mom and I now had to figure out how to leave this place. We squeezed ourselves through some people from district 24 who were waiting to find their registration/fill out their bubble sheet/scan in their votes and slipped out the back, which was fabulously unpopulated. Next time, I'm coming through the back door. Voting this year did not feel like we were in a modern new era. It was crowded. It was chaotic. It was confusing. It was a mess. But still, it was awesome. I want to do this every year.
Election day is here again! There was significantly less personal drama than the last time around, when I wasn't even sure if I could vote. But somehow, a week after Hurricane Sandy ravaged this city (as well as the home of the namesake of this blog), we all managed to get our act together to go out and vote. Then again, on the UWS it was sort of like business as usual and if I didn't have my TV on I might not have known about all the crap my poor tri-state area cohorts were going through.
This year they changed my polling station to a different school. One much closer to me, but one that was apparently a lot smaller. I got to the site at 7:15pm to a line that wrapped around the entire block, which was weird because last time when I got to the polling station at roughly the same time, there was no line at all. Considering it was right around when everyone gets out of work, I wasn't completely surprised. But I wasn't sticking around - it was 40 degrees and I was in heels - I figured I'd go home and wait an hour and come back out. Surely the line would die out by then.
At 8:15, I went back out and no such luck - the line was just as long! This was really weird. Luckily I found my parents in line and hopped in with them. Yes, I cut the line to ensure that I could fulfill my civic duty where it doesn't matter anyway. But honestly - that was the least of everyone's problem. I think it took us about 40 mins to get into the entrance of the school, and once we got to the entrance it was a complete clusterf*ck, which explained the insane line. For one thing, the room was about a quarter the size of the last school's auditorium.
One thing that added to the crowds was much more stringent ID checking this year. My mom's last name was spelled with a "W" while mine was spelled with a "V", so even though the addresses matched our IDs exactly and the signatures matched our IDs exactly, the lady at the table agonized over what to do. My dad's name was spelled right, so we hastily got him his forms and sent him off. After sorting out this mixup, my mom and I finally got our forms. Seeing our names in the registration book but not being able to just get our stuff and go was like coming back from a school field trip where the bus would go right by my house without stopping to let me off because they were required to take everyone back to the school. I'm all for crushing voter fraud but this was mildly nonsensical, but hey I can't blame the lady who has been up and working since 5AM and getting paid only $200.
So we moved 4 years forward but I think we went back in time for this election. First of all, I got a bubble sheet to fill out my vote. A bubble sheet! And in a manilla folder! What is this, 1988? If it wasn't so crowded in there and 9pm, I would have had a flashback to the fourth grade to my scantron days. No one told me where to go to fill it out but I figured it out. There were these sad little tables that had a blinders around them decorated in red, white and blue. Where were my switches? Where was my lever? Where was my curtain?! I felt so exposed! Someone was trying to look over my shoulder to steal my answers! And where were the instructions? Was I supposed to circle the bubble? Put an X on it? Put a line through it? Put a dot in it? Color it in? What if I went outside the lines? Where was my Number 2 pencil? And why was the font so small?! I could barely read the names!
After I figured out who I was voting for (the 3 candidates who were running for the 3 judge seats unopposed - hm, tough one) I put my scantron sheet back into my manilla folder and now had to figure out what to do with it. Was I supposed to fax it somewhere? Someone told me that the scanners were on the other side of the room. So all I had to do was push and shove my way through that. There was actually no line for the scanner so before I fed my votes in I looked around for a unicorn too. I put my page into the scanner - upside down or right side up, it didn't matter and I waited for my results to be sent off somewhere. Finally - one piece of evidence that we're in a modern era - the spinning beachball of death. And then....that was it. The volunteer told me I was done. Dissatisfied, I looked for my mom who was lost in the sea of hangry voters, and brought her to the scanner. We fed her scantron into the scanner as well and waited and then...that was it. We were done. After all that. Did everyone vote like this or was this just New York?
The room still looked like a 3rd world airport as my mom and I now had to figure out how to leave this place. We squeezed ourselves through some people from district 24 who were waiting to find their registration/fill out their bubble sheet/scan in their votes and slipped out the back, which was fabulously unpopulated. Next time, I'm coming through the back door. Voting this year did not feel like we were in a modern new era. It was crowded. It was chaotic. It was confusing. It was a mess. But still, it was awesome. I want to do this every year.
Let's organize this a little better next time, shall we?
Excuse me, is that folder from Staples?
Why aren't there more people running?
Really? This is how the president of a world super power is getting elected?
Feeding the votes in.
What would I do if this didn't work? The thing already ate my paper.
...and....that's it.
Relegated to the corner and ignored by every single person in the room.
9:20PM - last people to vote.
Mom's post election reward.
Let's do this again in 4 years?
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