Stressful voting morning in NY

THANKS to my cousin, within these past couple of weeks I have watched more episodes of Scandal than I’d ever like to admit. Starting from Season 1 allowed me to really take the scandalous scenes that we know the US government is capable of, and with being a US citizen myself, the scent of conspiracy is flying through the air during this election day. Though I didn’t physically have to be there, I went back in time to cast my vote and the scene was ridiculous.

I am assigned to a district within a predominantly African American neighbourhood and due to one of the candidates coming across as extremely racist, the hope was that it would get African American voters out to the polls in order to make sure the other candidate won.

Though the voting location that everyone in the neighbourhood attended was very crowded by the time that I got there, it wasn’t because more people than usual were coming out to vote, it was because out of the three machines that were designated for this district only one was working. A process that usually takes no more than a half hour, took nearly two hours.

People were coming out to vote before attending work but were getting caught in a line that they couldn’t leave.

At around 11.15 or 11.30 am, the only machine that was working stopped. Though a machine not working isn’t something new that voters or election board workers have seen, to have them all stop working during an election like this, where more than ever the feeling that every vote counts and especially in a minority neighbourhood, made suspicions fly.

Voters that were still waiting in the line, were given the option to cast an emergency vote which allowed them to drop their votes in a box for the workers to scan within the machines at a later time.

With some people running out of time to head back to work, they had no choice. If they left without casting their vote, they couldn’t come back to do it, so though sceptical, they dropped their ballots within the emergency box and left.

The majority consensus, however, was really distrustful of the idea that their votes may somehow be “lost” or not counted if they entrusted it to the workers, so they stayed on line and waited it out. At around 12 pm the technician came and fixed the three machines. As one line finally split into three, sighs of relief swept over the entire crowd, for voters more than happy to finally get this over with. Though polls opened from 6 am, with the confusion and anxiety associated with this election, I wouldn’t be surprised if more time is needed to count and recount the ballots. Lets just hope it’s a vote that the world can handle.