It's election day! Hooray! You know what that means? All of your friends and family will soon stop blowing up your Facebook and Twitter with harsh opinions, political campaigns and all other types of fun stuff that has been cramming up our news-feeds. Now, as somebody who was been following the election I can honestly say that I have no idea or even a slight guess of who is going to win. But that's what i'm not focusing on for this blog. My number one concern this election are the voters who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy. Where will they go? What is the process those people have to go through to vote? Will they even bother is they have a million other things to worry about?
"Though
the region hit by Hurricane Sandy is not expected to be in play in the
presidential election, the combination of the storm and heavy morning turnout
yielded long lines, confusion, frustration and anger. At several polling sites
in New York City the vote scanning machines being used for the first time in a
presidential election malfunctioned, forcing workers to resort to paper ballots
and slowing the process even more"(TNYT). A man named Randy Harter voted in New Rochelle in Westchester County where he had an awful voting experience. Harter asked an election worker for help filling out his paper ballot and he was told, "Just fill it out." When he was done he inserted his ballot in to the first machine, it jammed. Second machine, jammed. He was eventually given an envelope which meant his vote would then be hand-counted. Harter said the entire voting experience took 45 minutes (TNYT). That is what I find so frustrating about reading these news articles. These people are going out of their way to vote and there are so many complications. At Public School 163, on the
Upper West side of Manhattan, hundreds of voters packed into a gym. Voters has
to wait in different lines to find out their district, get a ballot, fill it
out, and actually get it scanned. The process was reporter to take an hour and
there was no help for the disabled (TNYT).
It is just really unfortunate that this had to happen but like we said in class, nobody prepares for what to do on election day if a hurricane strikes a week before. After reading numerous news articles about how the hurricane affects voters, I am now just interested to see some news coverage of some of those states tonight.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/07/nyregion/long-lines-at-polling-places-as-displaced-residents-find-ways-to-vote.html?pagewanted=all
I've been thinking a lot about how difficult it can be to vote, not only in the east where there is significant hurricane damage, but for college students across the whole country. I heard a girl talking on the bus about not being able to vote because in order for her to vote in Allendale, she would have to change her permanent address on her license. By the time she found this out, it was too late to register for an absentee ballot. My roommate had to skip class today to drive and hour and half home in order to vote. I was fortunate to learn early enough that the first time a person votes, it has to be in person (unless they sign a special form in front of the city clerk). Many of my friends didn't know this and weren't even able to get an absentee ballot. The young people are the future of this country and I find it so frustrating how difficult it is for a college student to be able to exercise their right to vote.
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