All The World's A Stage

VWB - Voting While Black

[xposted from my lj]

Yes, we did have a Republican challenger at our precinct. He looked republican, even, which is to say he was a middle aged white man, well dressed, situated amoung 7 white women of various ages working our precinct. It was obvious he did not know them. It was obvious his presense made them nervous.

He had challenged a black man who had been waiting 2 hours for some resolution when I walked in the door at 11, after I was finished with Jury duty (no, I did not get impaneled.)

I voted, and then I sat down next to this guy, introduced myself, and basically offered to just be his moral support, and his name-taker. He had a voter registration card - he showed it to me - it looked just like mine.

He got challenged because his name, Shaun, was spelled Shawn on the polls list, and Shaun on his card. And because he was a black man trying to vote in my mainly white, mainly democratic district. There was no James around to help this guy. He just kept saying to me, over and over, "This guy tried to get me to just leave. He doesn't want me to vote. I can't believe it. I read about it, but not here. This guy thought I would just leave."

I praised him highly for sticking to his guns. He said, "If I have to stay here all day, I'm voting."

Eventually (another 30 minutes) some voting officials showed up and told the Republican challenger the law was on this man's side, and he was at the correct precinct, he was registered, and he'd vote on a normal ballot.

2 hours and 40 minutes later, I gave this poor guy a ride home because his ride had left him already.

One more vote for Kerry, my friends. I would have sat there with him all day too, I wasn't going to leave him.

Posted by Liz at November 2, 2004 4:05 PM