A vote of no confidence.

I went to the polling place in Greenville yesterday to cast my vote in the primary, only to find out that I had already voted. This was according to the amazingly inept lady checking voter registration cards at the front desk. Apparently the guy who lives in my apartment building that has the same last name had voted earlier that day, but the lady wrote his information on my line. “You both have the exact same name!” she kept saying, even though we have different first names and apartment numbers - something she should’ve been checking more carefully. Her solution was to just not let me vote and leave, so that she could help other people in line. But the slightly-more-helpful-but-really guy sitting next to her suggested I vote with a “challenge ballot”. My wife and I kept making comments about how this doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the South Carolina voting process, but the old folks behind the counter disagreed, saying “it’s far more secure than any other state” - to which I replied, “Well that clearly isn’t the case here.”

I kept making suggestions and asking questions, trying to figure out this but the lady just wanted me to move along, rather than acknowledge that she made a mistake and screwed me out of voting. I asked if they could check the signature of the person who voted in my place, but the lady said it would be “impossible”. Although she did suggest that I just vote in the other’s place since he voted in mine. Eventually the third polling manager came over and suggested the exact same thing, (impossibly) picking up the clipboard of signatures resting in front of them. The person who voted in my place was indeed the guy from my apartment building. The lady erased all his info, reproduced it on his line, and then finally allowed me to vote. After voting I went downtown to talk to the elections manager. He apologized for the mess, but pretty much dismissed the issues at the polling place with (and I’m paraphrasing) “They’re old and this kind of thing happens.” The whole ordeal was actually twice as ridiculous and confusing as I described here.

I guess I’m supposed to be happy that I got a chance to vote. Although in the upcoming November election maybe Florida isn’t the only voting state we should be worrying about.