Between a rock and a problematic polling place


You came. You voted.  The Democrats conquered.

And then just like that, the California statewide elections were over.

The next couple of weeks will likely be spent analyzing the ripple effect of the results of the midterm elections across the country, with particular focus on the shift of power in the House of Representatives, the Democrats’ retention of the majority in the Senate and how all of this serves to hinder or support President Barack Obama’s agenda.

Similar conversations will undoubtedly take place on campus, but there’s another issue that will likely trump any issues regarding political ideology.

On Tuesday, many students who had registered to vote in the election, were not on the lists of registered voters at on-campus polling locations.  Although these students were able to cast votes, they were given provisional ballots instead of traditional ones.

A similar problem occurred during the 2008 general election.

All things considered, we want to know:

What impact, if any, did the on-campus polling place issues have on your voting experience?

What do you think? Add your two cents to the conversation by submitting a comment in the entry form below.

2 replies
  1. Kathy
    Kathy says:

    It counts. I have a friend who lost a big election by three votes. He only knew for sure once they’d counted all the absentee and provisional ballots several times.

  2. Amanda
    Amanda says:

    It upset me terribly. It is also pretty sad considering 80% of the people who voted in Marks Tower aren’t really going to have any effect on the election-yes, provisional ballots are counted, but not for days afterwards and the “winners” of the election are already decided. Because I participated in Southside’s “Battle of the Ballot,” I trusted those who were in charge of the competition to make sure my voter registration paper was sent in after it was counted. Unfortunately, I (along with many others who trusted the Battle of the Ballot people) was not registered to vote with this address in time to vote regularly.

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