If this were a presidential election with high turnout in the Tremont area of Cleveland, where I voted today, there’d be chaos right now in at least two polling places. Because it’s an off year municipal election, it’s only a blog post. But it is HIGH FUCKING TIME the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections get IT’S FUCKING ACT TOGETHER.
Neither I, nor my downstairs neighbor, received any notification of our polling place prior to election day from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. So I asked my neighbor where she voted last year, and off we went to Pilgrim United Church of Christ, on foot. Yippee!
Upon arrival, neither of us were on the list. We had to visit two separate tables - the one where we thought we were on the list, and from there, we were sent to the “problem” table. Visions of provisional ballots began dancing in my head, but before my blood boiled, we were told to head to another polling place. I was prepared, because I’d just changed my registration, but my neighbor was informed that despite voting there last year, her polling place had changed, too. If there were any lines at all, we’d have been there for some time. But there were no lines, because there is no turnout in an off year municipal election. Lucky!
Next, both of us on foot, we walked the extra few blocks to Tremont School. Again, I had to visit two tables. My neighbor visited one. We were both asked which precinct we live in, which is pretty hard to answer when the board of elections DOESN’T SEND YOU A NOTICE OF WHERE TO VOTE. No lines though, so no problem. Lucky again! We both voted, but my neighbor’s ballot had trouble going into the optical scan machine. No lines, so no problem. Lucky YET AGAIN!
Now, let’s imagine that both polling places were crammed with voters. My neighbor was in a hurry - she had a doctor’s appointment, and was trying to squeeze her trip to the polling place into her day. It is quite likely she never would have voted, among a good many others.
All of this because the Cuyahoga BOE, in an election where polling places were changed by the BOE, in which the BOE was well aware for months that ward boundaries had changed, couldn’t manage to let voters know in advance where to vote.
Jesus Fucking Christ, get your act together already.
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