Guest Post: Jessica Hardwick was denied her right to vote in Cupertino today

I'm in SF at a conference, and within minutes met someone who was looking for a political blogger to report her election experience: a bad one.

Please hear guest blogger Jessica Hardwick's story:

I take my right to vote very seriously, so I was quite dismayed when I received my sample ballot in spanish. I called the Registrar of Voters and after navigating the somewhat confusing voicemail prompts, I reached a human. She explained that sometime in the last year a postcard was mailed requesting language preferences for sample ballots, if no response was received the default was Spanish. I was taken aback to learn that the default was a language other than the offical language, but requested a new ballot in english, stating the urgency as I would be away from my polling place and I needed to cast an absentee vote. A week later, I had still not received a ballot so I requested another, and 5 days after that I logged yet another request. Now, on election day, I am 60 miles from my polling place, and won't be home until well after the polls close, I never received a new ballot in english, and I will not be able to participate in today's election. In short, because of bureaucracy, I was denied my legal right to vote.

So, multiple problems here, starting with defaulting to Spanish and ending with multiple unfulfilled promises to deliver an absentee ballot toa requestor who was within the stated deadline to request it.

If it can happen here, in what is admittedly a heavily Democratic-leaning county, I can only image what is happening elsewhere.

Anyone else have a story?

Posted by elisa at November 7, 2006 09:30 AM | Election Experiences