Vote Rant

The margin is narrow, but the responsibility is clear. ~John F. Kennedy

Few things annoy me to the point where I get seriously upset over them. I am not a complainer (or at least, I am not a complainer anymore, as I have reformed my adolescent carping ways), and I don't like to let things get to me. But I have to say something about my experience this morning because it was so disappointing and disheartening, especially for a first-time voter such as myself.

At 7 am, though I wouldn't know it yet, I was #63 in line at my polling place. It was pretty exciting to see a lot of people coming out so early. But the line moved at an extreme crawl and because we couldn't see the end of the line, we assumed there weren't enough booths. Sadly, the truth was shameful: there were eight or nine, in fact, and they largely stood vacant because the sign-in process was so inefficient. Seeing those booths, just standing there unused, I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. One would imagine that those expecting a voter turnout that would necessitate nine booths would dispatch a reasonable number of poll workers to match, no?

A single-file line for all the residents of Atherton and North Halls and also some people living off-campus is just unacceptable. There were two books, each for one half of the alphabet, so I don't understand why there couldn't have been two poll workers signing in two lines of people. Instead, there were four workers at the sign-in table, but only one was actually looking each voter up. There were two others there to write down each voter's name in a log and one to hand everyone a ballot. I heard later that the one worker at my polling place was the only person there who was authorized to go through the voter rolls, which is why none of the others could help him.

Are. You. Kidding. Me?

For a nation that prides itself on its democracy and equality and innovation, this voting system sure is screwed up. No wonder senior citizens have high voter turnout - who else has the time to stand around and wait for hours to vote? The girl behind me in line had a lab at 8 am and left before voting. Who can say if she returned later in the day? Maybe her frustration was enough to turn her off of voting at all today. Who knows if there were others who saw the long line and its alarmingly slow pace and just turned around? While I hope these things didn't happen, they are not that unrealistic.

Now, I realize that this election is probably going to have the highest voter turnout ever, numbers-wise and maybe even percent-wise, but since it seemed like every expert was saying that from the minute Barack Obama entered the race, don't you think the precinct would have prepared for this? Not to mention that this election was supposed to really electrify the youth. Um, yes, there are a lot of young voters here... on a college campus. I'm sure lines were long everywhere, but it's just appalling to me that the process was so inefficient where I voted.

This morning, it was enough to sap my excitement for this election, but now, as results come trickling in, I am happily anxious once again. Hooray for civic engagement!