Voting Prevails Amidst Accounts of Confusion and Flaws

by James Katsaounis

The typical process of waking up in the morning and beginning ones daily ritual was anything but typical on November 2, 2004. America was facing one of its most embattled grassroots campaigns to elect the person who would fill the seat of president in the White House. Election Day was here, and the many voices of America were going to be heard, especially here in Philadelphia.

Having already cast my vote by absentee ballot, I was anxious to hear and see what people in Philadelphia were experiencing at the polls. Within the workplace, however, co-workers experiences at the polls were already being voiced, some disgruntled while others complacent.

“Oh don’t even get me started about voting today,” said Ann Wilson, director of campus activities at Drexel University. “When I went to vote we had a person who couldn’t even read pulling the names of registered voters.”

At the 15th Ward, Division 15 in Canaan Church at 20th and Spring Garden Streets, Wilson was among a line of voters who arrived early when the polls opened at 7 a.m. The line was barely moving, poll workers were arguing and one of the two voting machines was not working. A neighbor standing in line next to Wilson used their cell phone to complain to the county voter registration office regarding the non-working machine. The registration office suggested plugging the machine into another electrical outlet. Once the neighbor encouraged the poll workers to try another outlet, the machine was up and running.

Still the lines moved slowly and the voting machines were visibly not in continuous use. As Wilson neared closer to those working the registration verification table, she watched the two ladies working the sign-in book and voter verification cards arguing that the line was moving too fast. According to Wilson, she reported her disgust with the way the polling place was being handled. The man whom she reported dissatisfaction to simply told the ladies “to do it the way they always do it.”

Once Wilson voted after a 45 minute wait, she complained again to the poll worker about the lady pulling the voter verification cards, this time saying that the lady had difficultly reading. “What’s it like in a district with less educated people,” Wilson exclaimed in disgust after her experience at the polls. She reported her dissatisfaction with NBC News who was operating a nationwide election experience report line.

Another employee at Drexel University, Ari Hauben, assistant director of campus activities, had another dissatisfying experience in the 34th Ward, Division 34. His polling place, off of City Line Avenue, was located in the garage of a person’s home. “It’s an interesting experience walking into the garage of someone’s home that you don’t know to cast your vote for president,” said Hauben.

Hauben who arrived at his polling place at 7:45 a.m. did not encounter any long lines or people violating the election protection laws, instead he was told that there was not record of him being registered to vote. The poll workers asked if he had voted there before or moved recently, according to Hauben. “I showed them my drivers license with my address and ensured them I had voted there before,” said Hauben.

After poll workers made numerous phone calls to different county voter registration verification hotlines, they finally called a state voter registration hotline that said Hauben was no longer a resident of Pennsylvania. When Hauben was told that the state of Pennsylvania did not have record of him presently living in the state, he finally showed them the voter registration ticket he received in the mail telling him where to go to vote.

After about an hour, a poll worker allowed Hauben to vote by provisional ballot. “My concern is what does [provisional ballot] mean? If the state doesn’t show me living here, will my ballot be thrown out even though my license and voter registration ticket shows me living here,” questioned Hauben. “I was dedicated to vote. I was glad that there was some type of provisional system, but I assume my ballot was probably thrown out,” he added.

After hearing Wilson and Hauben’s stories, it was time to hit the streets and visit the polling places myself. First stop was the 24th Ward, Division 1, in University City at 34th and Barring Streets. No lines were visible, there were a about a dozen posters promoting candidates attached to a fence as you entered the parking lot leading to the polling place, and there were two groups of people more than 100 feet from the polling place entrance with clipboards in hand.

The two groups were Election Protection, a non-partisan voting rights organization and Move On, a 527 organization supporting the Democratic ticket with private funds. “Election Protection was started by lawyers to make sure people going to the polls were not being intimidated,” said Will Flanders, an attorney volunteering from Massachusetts. “After hearing about minorities being intimidated at polling places during the last presidential election, I decided to sign up and volunteer. Philly was the closest location,” he added.

The Election Protection groups assigned to mostly minority neighborhoods across the country are made up of teams of four people, one must be an attorney. Election Protection volunteers have access to a legal command center made up of legal experts should they see any activity that is questionable. “This has been a very laid back polling place,” said Flanders who had been working the poll since 7:00 a.m. and will work until the polls close at 8:00 p.m. The only problem we have seen here were that too many provisional ballots were being used,” said Flanders. “When we saw so many provisional ballot receipts in the hands of voters exiting the polls we looked into it immediately and discovered that people weren’t being sent to their assigned wards to vote.”

The poll did appear to be running smoothly. No more than 6 people entered to vote during the 30 minutes I was present. “Everything has been fine, except one man tried writing on the machine for his write-in candidate,” said Gloria Jackson, machinist for the polling place. “The machine went dead and we had to call in to get instructions to reroute the machine to get it up and running,” she added.

The 527 organization, Move On, were quietly speaking among themselves. They appeared to be respecting the few voters who entered the polls to vote and only asked voters if they had received any solicitations at their place of residence.

The next stop before the polls closed was the smallest ward and two smallest divisions in Philadelphia: Ward 8 and Divisions 22 and 23 located at 2200 Ben Franklin Parkway. Located in the town hall of the Park Towne Place apartment complex, these polls we equally as quiet as the previous poll visited in University City.

No lines, and only one voter was seen during the last half hour before the polls finally closed. Patty Jepson, a resident of Park Towne Place and member of the Move On organization said “massive amounts of students tried to vote, but were turned away because they didn’t know they had to vote where they registered.” Poll workers estimated that they had an increase in voter participation by 70% over the 2000 presidential election. “The students not knowing where to vote is something we need to do a better job of educating them in the future,” added Jepson.

Keli Jackson, another Move On organization representative said, “the bulk of the crowd came before 4:00 p.m., we never had any lines that lasted longer than ten minutes. She was also able to confirm Jepson’s statement that college age students need to be better informed on how to vote.

The polls closed at 8 p.m. For the two smallest divisions in the 8th Ward, the night ended smoothly and the restless poll workers were surely going to be able to call it an early night. The atypical day had ended with a typically American ideal, the democratic process of voting. But as we see from the experiences of some people, the process of voting is not always going to be easy.