I've Been Disenfranchised!!!!!!!!!
That's right, the Might Overlord has been disenfranchised, and thus far have been denied my right to vote. Here's the story thus far:
In June of '04, I moved from Tampa, Florida; to Prattville, Alabama. In early July, my wife and I registered to vote here in AL, through RocktheVote.com (mistake on my part obviously). Here's where the problem comes in. About 99% of the folks in Prattville, AL live in Autauga county. My registration card says Autauga county. There are about 400 of us, that live inside of Prattville, that are in the neighboring county of Elmore. In fact, if I go into my back yard and walk off my property line, I'm in Autauga county. It's about 60 feet from my back door. But I live in and am registered in Elmore. Or so I thought. I left this morning to vote, in Elmore county. When I arrived, I was informed that I had to go to Autauga county to vote. Kind of irritating, but OK. So I go to Autuaga county precinct, (the one on my card), and I get turned away again. The Autauga county reps tell me I'm not registered there, except for the city/municipal elections. For the federal elections, I have to go to Elmore county. So I make the drive to Elmore county again. The gentleman there is kind enough to make a few phone calls, and finally puts us on the phone with the Elmore county supervisor of elections office. As it turns out, apparently the fine folks over at Rock the Vote dot com, because Prattville is 99% Autauga county, attempted to register me in that county for the federal elections. Obviously, it didn't work. It turns out that I am not registered to vote in the federal elections in any county. So I make a phone call to the Alabama Secretary of State's office. The word so far is that I should go to the voting precinct on my registration card (Autauga county) and file a provisional ballot, and basically hope it all works itself out. And I thought Florida was effed up. I'll continue to try and vote today, though it seems unlikely as I am on the night shift and have to be at work in about 3 hours. I'll let you all know if I'm able to vote. If anyone has any advice or information that could be helpful to me in this situation, send me an email. I would dearly appreciate it.
One more thing I should mention is as I was coming out of the Elmore county precinct, we were stopped by a reporter from the Montgomery Advertiser, a local newspaper. It turns out the young lady was very interested in our situation. Although I seriously doubt my vote will be cast this year, hopefully we can shed some light on this and make sure it doesn't happen again.
Update:
So the office of Alabama's secretary of state tells me to fill in a provisional ballot and basically, hope for the best. Screw that. Per Mike's advice, I tried to call the Rush Limbaugh show, as he was giving folks a number off the air that they could call for assistance. However, as I expected, I was unable to get through before I got to work. So I ended up just filing a series of complaints (a whole lot actually) and just be happy that Alabama went to Bush anyway.
Update2: It seems I'm not the only one having problems.
Update3: A message to all the democrats who were running for office yesterday--Nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodye!! Have a great day folks;-)
In June of '04, I moved from Tampa, Florida; to Prattville, Alabama. In early July, my wife and I registered to vote here in AL, through RocktheVote.com (mistake on my part obviously). Here's where the problem comes in. About 99% of the folks in Prattville, AL live in Autauga county. My registration card says Autauga county. There are about 400 of us, that live inside of Prattville, that are in the neighboring county of Elmore. In fact, if I go into my back yard and walk off my property line, I'm in Autauga county. It's about 60 feet from my back door. But I live in and am registered in Elmore. Or so I thought. I left this morning to vote, in Elmore county. When I arrived, I was informed that I had to go to Autauga county to vote. Kind of irritating, but OK. So I go to Autuaga county precinct, (the one on my card), and I get turned away again. The Autauga county reps tell me I'm not registered there, except for the city/municipal elections. For the federal elections, I have to go to Elmore county. So I make the drive to Elmore county again. The gentleman there is kind enough to make a few phone calls, and finally puts us on the phone with the Elmore county supervisor of elections office. As it turns out, apparently the fine folks over at Rock the Vote dot com, because Prattville is 99% Autauga county, attempted to register me in that county for the federal elections. Obviously, it didn't work. It turns out that I am not registered to vote in the federal elections in any county. So I make a phone call to the Alabama Secretary of State's office. The word so far is that I should go to the voting precinct on my registration card (Autauga county) and file a provisional ballot, and basically hope it all works itself out. And I thought Florida was effed up. I'll continue to try and vote today, though it seems unlikely as I am on the night shift and have to be at work in about 3 hours. I'll let you all know if I'm able to vote. If anyone has any advice or information that could be helpful to me in this situation, send me an email. I would dearly appreciate it.
One more thing I should mention is as I was coming out of the Elmore county precinct, we were stopped by a reporter from the Montgomery Advertiser, a local newspaper. It turns out the young lady was very interested in our situation. Although I seriously doubt my vote will be cast this year, hopefully we can shed some light on this and make sure it doesn't happen again.
Update:
So the office of Alabama's secretary of state tells me to fill in a provisional ballot and basically, hope for the best. Screw that. Per Mike's advice, I tried to call the Rush Limbaugh show, as he was giving folks a number off the air that they could call for assistance. However, as I expected, I was unable to get through before I got to work. So I ended up just filing a series of complaints (a whole lot actually) and just be happy that Alabama went to Bush anyway.
Update2: It seems I'm not the only one having problems.
Update3: A message to all the democrats who were running for office yesterday--Nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodye!! Have a great day folks;-)
posted by Unknown at
9:49 AM
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