My voting experience 2020

Vote 

It has taken a while to write this because I have been gathering my thoughts and trying to figure out the next best course of action. 

Voting is something that I take very seriously. I do it because it’s what I know is my duty and my right. It is how I make my voice heard in a political process. I see the power of my vote. 

Tuesday, June 9th, was the combined election for GA and the US primary. Our original one was canceled in May due to COVID. Several things that I saw outraged me. I want to recap those things for you all, and I want to give the proper shoutout to the people that helped throughout the day. 

1. I applied by email for my absentee ballot. I got no confirmation or response when asking for the status of my ballot. I gave up and went to early vote. It took 2 and half hours to early vote on Tuesday. My absentee ballot arrived that night after I voted. 

2. I know other people whose ballot never arrived. Who sent them by email and one who sent theirs in by mail that comes the day before the elections. 

3. On election day, I saw the insanity start early of people in line for hours to vote. So, I did what mother Morehouse taught me to do. Take Action. One of my friends was making pro voting shirts and made me one. When I talked to her, I said I was thinking of taking water out to polling places. She was already at Walmart buying water and had friends coming to her house to do the same. I said I’m on the way. We organized snacks and water to hand out, and I even had spare masks for people. This should not have to happen. Voting should not be an all-day thing. ESPECIALLY during a pandemic.

4. While we were there, we actually turned into poll watchers. To set the scene: news comes out that Fulton County was extending polls from 7 pm to 9 pm. At 7 pm, we saw a poll worker dragging a barricade toward the front of the parking lot. We asked her what she was doing, and she replied that she was told to close the parking lot and that people could still get in line until 9 but could not park. This was when several of us jumped into action. The news of the polls staying open was widely known and published to the elections website. Still, the parking lot was closed for 17 minutes. This deflected an unknown number of potential voters. 

5. After the gate was back open, a poll worker came out and informed the crowd that the voting machines were being shut down, and they would have to cast their ballot on paper. This caused some people who waited close to an hour and a half to be agitated and cause 4 - 6 people to leave and go home. We took videos and pictures of the lines of people. (Below)

6. Finally, at 7:40 (over 30 minutes of confusion), the Polling station manager comes out while still on the phone with the elections committee downtown and makes an announcement. Everyone’s votes will count, but they not be submitting the votes until later that night. This was still confusing. 

7. After many phone calls and exercising every connection we had, we were able to get state senator Nakema Williams to come out with her campaign manager and an attorney to properly inform the crowd. Their votes will be submitted as provisional. The only provision being that they were cast after 7:00, and they will be counted at the end of the night. Also, Chris Bruce, an attorney for the ALCU, came out to lend us a hand and help us with how to document things as they happen.

I wrote this lengthy post to say THIS SHOULD NOT HAPPEN. This is criminal. Chris provided the most poignant quote of the day, “whether it’s overt racism or incompetence, it leads to the same result. Voter suppression” 

This has inspired me to find ways to help and make sure each and every person who is eligible to vote and wants to vote can vote. 

I will be doing an audio version of this soon. 

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This was the beginning of then confusion after 7:00 . This occurred at 740 after the original poll workers told people that their vote would not count at the...
This is just a video showing the line of people waiting after 7:00 to vote at the ben hill recreational center. Please see the full account of what happen at...