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Election Day Experiences, 2006

I voted today...but almost didn't
by Anita Rios, GP Candidate for Ohio Lt.Governor
November 7, 2006

I went to vote this morning. I made sure that I looked respectable, tamed my ethnic hair, put on nice clothes and wore my good coat. I had decided to try to vote using a form of ID available to someone who does not have a drivers license or state ID, and I didn't want to inadvertently set off any red flags among the poll workers by looking like... a scary Mexican? Anyway, I reread the card sent out by the Lucas Co. Board of Elections spelling out what I needed to do to comply with the new voter ID law. I put that in my purse along with my water/sewer bill, one of the only utility bills that I have which comes in my name in addition to my Husband's, since according to the notice is sufficent identifiaction. It has both my name and my husband's and our address. Of course I also had my Ohio drivers license but was committed to not using it.

I got to my polling location and first observed that a campaign worker for one of Bob Vasquez, (one of our Democrat Toledo City Council candidates) was passing out litrature well within the flags posted as the boundry for that type of activity. It was raining and he was trying to stay dry and I didn't say say anything to the poll workers. But I shouldn't have had to it is their job to enforce the law.

As I entered the polling place and stepped up to the table they asked me for my drivers license. I gave them my water bill and they seemed confused until the election judge said it was an accepatble form of ID. So they found my name in the book and one of the poll workers asked what to put in this little rectangular box next to my name. The other worker then said that they needed to put in an ID number and asked If I didn't have my drivers license on me, because they needed to put in an ID number. I told her," yes", I had my license but that I had presented an acceptable form of ID and wasn't going to show my license. She then told me that she still needed a photo ID because "I don't know who you are".

A second election judge approached and told the poll worker to use the last for digits of my Social Security no. and have me cast a provisional ballot. I refused and read aloud the "Notice of Election and Identification Requirments" that I had brought with me. And stated that I wanted to cast my vote on the voting machine. The election judge told me that they had "so many new rules to figure out" and explained that I only had to give them the last 4 digits of my Social Security number. I handed her the ID requirements and told her that if she could show me where it stated that I had to provide that in addition to an acceptable form of ID, they had agreed that my water bill was an acceptable form of ID, that I would give them the last 4 digits of my Soc. Sec. no..

At that point they told me to take a seat and it appeared that they might not let me vote. My neighbor happened to be waiting for her son to finish voting and volunteered to vouch for me... I sat there for several minutes and then they just let me vote. The voting machines were all set up in a row and did not provide any privacy so I asked if I could move mine back so that I could have some privacy. The election judge said, "do whatever you want".

As I left the polling place the first election judge thanked me for my patience.

But all I could think about was what would have happened if I had not been so willing to press the issue, and didn't have a drivers license in my purse to pull out if needed.

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Don't forget to check out articles from 2007 and 2008

Election Day Experiences, 2006

"Voting in Denver"
November 10, 2006
Michael Anderson, mband@earthlink.net

"Voting in Hollywood, California"
November 9, 2006
Howard Luken, nemawashigroup@yahoo.com

"First state report, two voting machines down: anomaly, chicanery, or proof of a kleptocracy?"
November 9, 2006
Tom Luffman

"Machine glitches"
November 8, 2006
Jacqueline I. Ruhl, jigrar@columbus.rr.com

"Voting problems"
November 7, 2006
Karla Caspari, kcaspari@cpinternet.com

"Coshocton County"
November 7, 2006
Tim Kettler, TmKettler@aol.com

"D Precinct Harrison Twp, Licking County Diebold Machines were faulting"
November 7, 2006
Stephen Caruso, dael4@copper.net

"voting difficulty: list of legitimate local write-in candidates not available at polling place"
November 7, 2006
William McCarthy

"machine pulled provisional ballot several times"
November 7, 2006
Judith Coletti, judith@midohio.twcbc.com

"Victoria Lovegren may be arrested on criminal charges for seeking to see precinct-level election results in Cuyahoga County"
November 7, 2006
Victoria Lovegren, Ph.D.

"PAPER BALLOTS"
November 7, 2006
Douglas H. And Carol S. Lovely

"I voted today...but almost didn't"
November 7, 2006
Anita Rios, GP Candidate for Ohio Lt.Governor

"Pelosi"
November 6, 2006
phoebeso@earthlink.net

"Mississippi Voter Registration"
November 6, 2006
Jim Varn

"Calls by the GOP giving out wrong precincts in Athens"
November 6, 2006
Susan Gwinn

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