Nov 2nd, 2004, 03:01 PM
Voting conspiracy?
I know there at least several individuals from the northern Virginia area that frequent these boards regularly, so I think I'll tell about my rather interesting voting experience here. Maybe one of you can help me.
A month or so ago I went to get my student ID remade at VCU, the school I attend (I live in Fredericksburg, just so you know) and decided to fill out what I thought was a form to have the state send me a voters card, which I believed I needed to vote. I was wrong on both counts; I only needed a valid form of ID to vote on election day (today, obviously), and the form was actually a request to have an absentee ballot sent to my residence. Not wanting to vote absentee because I feel better doing it in person, I followed the instrustions outlined inside the envelope to negate my absentee vote, which required me sending a form back to the county in a provided envelope. In big bold letters it said I HAD to do this if I wanted to vote personally. I did EXACTLY what they said, placed a soggy stamp on the envelope, put it in my mailbox and thought that was that.
Around 10 am I made my way to the voting place and stood in the I-Q line. I presented my ID to the lady with the list of registered voters, and she told me I had an "AB" next to my name, which apparently meant I had voted absentee. She directed me to the main official in the building and he called the voting registrar office.
After standing for ten minutes as he chattered on the phone, he told me he could not hand me a ballot because they had me registered as an absentee voter in the county. Outraged, I explained my situation to him and asked where I could reach the voting registrar building. He gave me directions and I blazed over there.
Once I arrived the lady at the desk was attending to a guy who looked around my age. Apparently he was having the exact same problem I had. She tried to brush us away by saying there was nothing she could do, but fortunately the other guy there was a law school student and knew his stuff. He mentioned voting provisional. I had never heard of it. She brought us both to the back room, handed us a ballot and an envelope to seal it in which she had to sign herself as a witness. She assured us "everything was taken care of." I wasn't so sure. Neither was he.
Needless to say, Virginia is going to be decisively won by Bush, so it really didn't matter whether I voted or not. But that doesn't make light of the matter that I had to deal with today. I followed the directions EXACTLY that the county had sent me. How could something so simple be made so sketchy and complicated? If I remember correctly, provisional ballots MAY or MAY NOT be counted. I'm no expert at this stuff, but I'd feel alot better if they had just let me vote at the voting booth. I'm not a cynical person by nature, but this has left me wondering. Can I take any legal action with this? I would imagine so, if the county were at fault with this. After all, the right to vote is in the Constitution. Are there any numbers I can call?
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