Being disabled I was delighted to learn NC had curbside voting. You pulled into the designated area and someone would come and take your information, get your ballot and scan it (and bring a receipt) which being disabled was great. But when my car went kaput almost three years ago the only practical option was absentee/mail-in voting. I won’t bore you with the difficulties I’d face going through a line. What matters me getting a notice my primary ballot was rejected due to ‘lack of voter ID.’Â I’m saying flat out the individual who processed the ballot and generated that notice is a LIAR.
I promise you and could produce two people who would swear under oath that I, with the UPS Notary following along precisely completed the required steps including adding a photocopy of my driver’s license with my mail-in ballot. That photo ID was in there. It didn’t just magically disappear. No, some election worker STOLE it. Since my ballot was a Democratic primary ballot I think it’s safe to say a GOPer working there was pilfering voter IDs to invalidate Democrat’s ballots. I also think it’s safe to say it wasn’t just one person. Either in my country, around the state or as the primaries progress the whole country. It’s a TEST to see how much they can get away with.
This actually isn’t my first glitch with mail-in voting. You can get witnesses to sign your ballot envelope but they have to provide a lot of information. Since COVID people in my building don’t interact like used to be the case. It’s mostly a nod, or hello as folks pass each other. There’s another option which is to have a notary stamp the ballot envelope for you. NC law says notaries can’t charge for ballots but the UPS store I went to in an earlier election charged me anyway. I should have filed a formal complaint. But I didn’t which leads me to last week. A fellow veteran in my building drove me to a different UPS store. I was prepared this time with not just the ballot and envelopes but the whole packet. Including the very, very detailed instructions and I marked the part about no charges for notary service.
I actually had two items to get notarized, and the young man was really cool. He explained the charge for the one item, but said notarizing the ballot was free of charge per NC law. Cool. He also made a copy of my driver’s license – it’s a requirement in NC as in so many places now with a GOP supermajority legislature. I had the instructions out with the ballot envelope and the mailing envelope it goes into once the ballot one is sealed and notarized. Together, we step by step followed the instructions including making sure to put the copy of my driver’s license in the correct envelope. George was watching.
Postage was put on the mailing envelope after IT was sealed and the young man commented people should have to pay themselves (it was $1.90) just to mail in an absentee ballot. Like I said, a cool and helpful guy. Since he could see how difficult it is for me to get around he even walked it over and dropped it in their outgoing mailbox for me!
All seemed well, and then the text and email notifications that my ballot was rejected because there was no voter ID. WTF? We did things ‘by the numbers’ – two of us reading the instructions and talking to each other with each step, with as I said a friend looking on. That photocopy of my ID WAS included! That begs the question of what happened to it? Did magical fairies remove it during the mailing process or after it was received at the Wake County Board of Elections? It looked like a regular photocopier and the paper the driver’s license was printed on (all three of us looked to ensure it was a clean, legible copy) looked and felt like regular copy paper. But maybe the UPS guy used some clever trick (as in his cool attitude was a ruse) to use a special “dissolving” type of paper.
Then there’s the more obvious and unfortunately sinister explanation. Wake County is a Democratic leaning place but election workers that process ballots come from both Parties. It’s my fervent belief that a GOPer was one of who knows how many carrying out a test run for election suppression this fall. “Lose” the voter ID and force voters to cure their ballots at the last minute. The initial alerts there was a problem made it seem like just as ballots had to be receive by election day (today) curing my ballot would have to be done today.
Luckily (so it seems) when I called I was connected to someone who seemed both apologetic and wanted to help. First he said they save everything and he’d go check my ballot and the two envelopes and call me back. Sure enough he was good as his word and called back in ten or so minutes. The bad news was no, there was no photocopy of my ID. He gave me options on how to ‘cure’ my ballot including re-copying my license of filling out the ‘no voter ID form and swearing it was me who sent it in. And fax it to them. I explained the service coordinator for my building (an over 55 apartment building with 230 units) wasn’t in today. Nor could I afford the cost of an Uber to their offices.
That’s when he said I actually had until Friday. You know, the initial notices might have said that! It would have save me a lot of stress since Joyce is scheduled to be in her office tomorrow. He also suggested taking a picture and texting it in. I’m not great with smartphones and it took a bunch of tries (the neuropathy has started to affect my fingers too) to get what I thought was a clear picture. Then I couldn’t remember the freaking place to text it to and I’m not that great with texting to begin with.
That led to a third conversation with my helper and he both offered to give me his personal cell so he could print the photo and include it with my ballot, AND talk me through the process. He said the photo quality was fine and my ballot would be cured. Alas, I’ll have to go online because this being NC GOPers won’t let the election folks notify us our ballot is fixed.
The bottom line is that they are testing out their game playing. On the way home George mentioned curbside voting, and I said whenever he goes to early vote this fall let me know and I’ll tag along. I can vote from the car while he goes inside I said. He replied he might as well vote from the car too. So I’m going to be okay this fall and with a chance to flip a Senate seat you can be damned sure I want to cast my vote.
I’m mainly writing to warn you that subtle and not so subtle strategies are being tested to suppress Democrat’s votes. Like claiming you didn’t include a copy of your voter ID and making you jump through hoops at the last minute. Frankly, I think difficult as it is for some of us we need to figure out a way to vote in person at a polling place. Start planning now. Because I sit her tonight as living proof there are GOP election workers who will f**k with your absentee/mail in ballot to keep you from voting.
I call bullshit just like you did. I’m in a blue county, but as you mentioned, we likely have both parties handling the elections. At least I can still go wait in line, although I get a shorter line because I’m handicapped. I dread the year I have to go through what you just did. Great to know the bullshit is already starting. WTAF.
Be careful, Susan, with the in-person voting. I can just imagine that those “handicapped lines” could go away as easily as almost everything else. I mean, the GOP doesn’t seem to realize a lot of their stalwart voters tend to be older people who have mobility issues but they seem adamant in doing away with voting by mail so why wouldn’t they decide “Well, if you can get to the polling place, you certainly should be able to stand around for hours on end and NOT get preferential treatment.”
“It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes.”
Joseph Stalin.
And that includes deciding which votes to count.
They think the fix is in, it’s how they won last time, but there just aren’t enough of them, Trump is too dislikeable.
Update: In case anyone was wondering the seemingly helpful guy I spoke with that talked me through texting a pic of my driver’s license turned out to be exactly what he seemed – intent on doing his job serving voters.
I did check the BOE website and it lists my ballot as ACCEPTED and just as importantly cured. So, to the GOP asshole who stole my proof of ID and tried to steal my vote go fuck yourself with a big roll of rusted chain link fence that has been soaked in a cesspool, or better yet the sewer under Trump’s fake gold toilet. After you do that go fuck yourself again with that same roll of nasty fence having been soaked in toxic waste. And repeat. Again and again. Same for every other GOPer out that that’s been secretly schooled to pull this stunt.
I will piss off plenty including my sister back in my MASA hometown with it’s very own MAGA Congress Critter if I’m back there and see them screaming about voter fraud (77 cases I think prosecuted in the past fifteen plus years – a majority of them Republicans too) and the need for voter ID. Not ONE of them will have to show ID when they vote. Nor will, if god forbid the SAVE Act passes have to go to the trouble of getting a birth certificate with their birth (instead of married) names.
So get ready now to work around them come fall. Only three states had primaries today so everyone needs to look out for news about voter suppression wherever they are. Republicans are using the primaries for test runs on their shitty intentions and tactics.
Be ready long before voting starts in the fall. Ensure your name hasn’t been purged from the rolls and start now to gather whatever documentation new rules/laws the GOP enacts between now and then to get re-registered. Arrange transportation if like me you don’t have a vehicle, both to re-register at a county office (and film the process or have a friend do so on your cell phone) and then to vote.
If you DO voter asbsentee do so as early as possible and check every day until you know your ballot has been accepted. If as I’ve talked about you know what kind of crap GOPers willl pull to throw out your vote you can be ready as soon as you learn there’s a ‘problem’ to fix it.