Yesterday the whole country was shaken up by a surprising and unexpected election. I also had the chance to experience it firsthand. I was a poll worker. My job was to watch the booths and make sure the ballots were fed into the paper scanning machine, as North Carolina uses paper ballots rather than electronic ballots. Needless to say I enjoyed the experience, but I saw some issues as well.
One of the most major issues I saw was redistricting. Some people who had voted in that district for years suddenly learned that they were not able to cast their ballots in that district and had to go to the other side of town to cast ballots. We were even flabbergasted by it as they have been in the same precinct for years so why change it?
Another Issue I saw was people who had recently had address changes and updated it into voter ID systems could also not vote in our district, but had to go to their old district to vote. One voter just moved here from Charlotte, which is about 50 miles away. The precinct judge told the voter that they would have to go all the way to Charlotte to cast their ballot.
There also was heat between poll workers and voters during the early voting. Some voters accused other poll workers of intimidation. One even claimed that a poll worker had touched their child. Another issue was a cup of coffee was spilled on the ballot box machine, which shut it down for several minutes and we had to restart it.
Yesterday, there were actually no disruptions in my area. We only had like 275 voters yesterday, but needless to say it was rather calm even quiet at times. The Elections Board office however was swamped with voters and complaints. We didn't even get any of the "I Voted" stickers, which people really wanted. Krispy Kreme was supposed to give free donuts to every voter with their sticker yesterday. I did hear though that my town's store was not participating in that promotion.
One thing about voting here in NC is a lot of mothers and fathers with young children came to vote. We even had tables out where the adults could sit and mark ballots and the kids could watch them. This to me was a great idea as in Tennessee we had voting machines where no one could watch you cast your ballot. I think voting by paper ballot is still a better way.
It was interesting to get to do this. Plus I will get paid for doing it. I just wanted to share the election from my point of view in a nonpartisan way, and I am not even mentioning the candidates' names. I promise this is the last time you are going to hear me discuss this election on GAG.
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