Voting Mayhem

I went to vote this morning before work, knowing that standing in line for 20 minutes now would be much better than standing in line for 1 ½ hours later. I bought my house in early 2002 and immediately registered to vote. I’ve faithfully voted in every general, primary, bond, local etc. election since I turned 18. It is an incredibly important part of being a citizen of the United States.

Being a responsible voter I read my voter information packet and last night checked to make sure my precinct and polling location had not changed. According to the Utah County website, they had not.

However, and here’s where my irritation really starts to build, sometime after 5:00 p.m. last night the Utah County Clerk decided that due to registering 1000 new voters in my city they would create a 3rd precinct and send one of the current precincts to a completely new location. So, I head into the City Offices where I give my name to the election judge. My name is not on the list; I am baffled, my name has always been on the list.

The election judge looks at me and asks, “Do you live east of Redwood?”

Me: “Yes”

Judge: “Oh, then you vote in the Fire station.”

So, out to the fire station I go. The fire station is actually behind the city office building so the walk is about 14 steps, no big deal, right?

At the fire station I wait in line for about 20 minutes before I get to the judge.

Judge: “Name?”

Me: “Caoimhe”

Judge: “You’re not on my list. Maybe you’re on the inactive list.”

Me: “I shouldn’t be, I vote religiously in every election.”

Judge: “Well, our records are kind of messed up, so let’s look.”

My name is not on the inactive list. Now everyone, judges and voter alike, is baffled. The little old man judge takes me over to look at the map.

“Are you along the lake front?” He asks.

“I am.” I respond.

“Well, you’re definitely in this precinct. Let’s have you fill out a provisional ballot.”

So, that is what I do. I fill out the provisional ballot, which won’t be counted until 2 weeks after the election, and not really happy, but okay with the situation I leave. On my way out, I decide to stop back in at the city offices and say hello to an old friend who works there. He is not in his office so I decide to leave him a note. I ask the receptionist for a post-it and start to write a “hey, just saying hello” note when someone comes in to vote. The receptionist questions him about where he lives and when he mentions the name of my subdivision she says, “You are actually in the new precinct and should vote in the Credit Union.”

What the hell? So, I ask her a couple of questions and sure enough the receptionist knows more about the election than the ELECTION JUDGES and now, now I am upset!

So, I go back and talk to the judges in the city offices and the judges in the fire station and nobody seems to know if my vote will count. In fact, one of the judges actually suggested that I just head on down to the credit union and VOTE THERE as well.

Hello, has anyone other than me heard of voter fraud and the federal prosecution than comes with committing it?

So, I called the county and all they could tell me was that they already knew my city was all screwed up with this new precinct and that my vote should count because all the precincts are in the same district with the same ballot. I’ve got a phone number to call in 2 weeks to find out for sure. If it doesn’t count, my next phone call will be to the ACLU followed by a complaint of voter intimidation (does election judge incompetence fall under that?) to the state election board.