Early voted yesterday and waited on a three hour line to do it.

[Zoonart]

I have never had to wait more than 20 minutes to vote in my life before yesterday in Putnam County, NY.
The line began in the back of the parking lot of the Bowling Lanes that is next to the lot of the County Board of Elections, then snaked around into the BOE lot and around the back of the building, funneling into the building.

There were at least five hundred people online when we arrived.

The narrow drive beside the BOE building leading into the BOE parking lot was blocked by two sheriffs vehicles, so effectively, there was no parking in their lot as a vehicle would have to squeeze past the voter line and the sheriffs vehicle to do so.

No signage, no parking attendant... plenty of officers standing around....so with no other direction, everyone parked in the lot of the bowling alley.

After having stood in the line for about two hours... we watched as the bowling lanes deployed employees with stools to block the entrance to their lot, with signs threatening voters with towing should they park in the lot. The Sheriffs then moved their cars to block the bowling alley lot and instructed voters, who were still flooding in, to park in the BOE lot, causing total chaos as voters, had to dodge angry drivers, jockeying for a spot in a lot that was too small for the purpose, and pissed that they then had to walk all the way around into the Bowling alley lot to actually join the line.

This in a PURPLE county of less than 100K inhabitants. Voter intimidation?.. you decide.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. of course it is intimidation and repression. Also... beaver?

[Zoonart]

3. LOL... damn that auto correct.

Yes... I know and many on live began to scream their heads off, albeit with masks on. Everyone was pretty hot.

Once inside the voting was very smooth, with hand sanitizer mandated, no shared pens and sanitized stylus for sign in. But to get there, while not exactly "broken glass" was a hard crawl and I and others will have more to say about it when the county has it's next meeting.

[CurtEastPoint]

4. I think I need to make voting reform my hot button for the future. No excuses. None.

[doc03]

2. It is hard to believe what some people have to go through just to vote. I am in

a rural county in Ohio with 67000 population we have one polling place for early voting. Still I voted the first day and
it took less than about 15 minutes at most. I had to wait for a person to leave before I could go in about 2 minutes. I went to the window gave them my drivers license and got my ballot 5 minutes. Took my ballot and voted maybe 5 minutes. That's it
voting finished.

Since then they have had problems with people wearing their MAGA hats and people refusing to wear masks. So they posted a deputy Sheriff at the polling place.

[chriscan64]

5. I feel fortunate.

I just came back home from voting in my tiny town just south of San Antonio Texas (Biden +1). I was the first to arrive and nobody in line when I left. The disparity in the ease of voting from location to location is reprehensible. The moral of the story is don't sleep on state legislative elections. The republicans have bagged their limit in the number of voters they can attract with policy and candidates, so they set out to reduce Democratic votes by throwing up roadblocks to voting itself. How can they be trusted to govern with the interests of the general population in mind when the seek to subvert the right to vote for more than half of the voters?

[Hoyt]

6. So, the seemingly red area in NY - 2016 results - is suppressing what are likely trump/GOPer votes?

I'm basing "red" on Clinton got only 39.3% of the vote in Putnam County in 2016.

[Zoonart]

8. Not really RED I have lived here for 20 years and it is

Hard red for local elections and Purple for national office. Our Rep. is Sean Patrick Maloney, who is also up for election and I have never seen the Democrats I this county put on a harder push. I think many Rep. women in this county have had it with tRUMP. Can they out vote their husbands?, we will see.

On line yesterday with lots of AA folks and lots of Latinex, so that is a good thing. I just think that a the early voting up here in VERY BLUE>

[Hoyt]

9. I believe, and hope, that the long lines in such areas are due to more people voting than officials

thought. I think that is good for us and not necessarily voter suppression.

BTW, I am in such a red area that I've started calling it a "rube" state.

[Zoonart]

10. You may be right.

I just seemed that the way this was handled was designed for maximum chaos.

(although, I must admit that is their default mode) LOL

[LAS14]

7. Don't forget to record this in THE OFFICIAL I VOTED thread.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214258305

[Zoonart]

11. Done.