This morning, I got up early, meditated, showered, and then walked down to the Lochwood branch library to vote. It was about 7:10 or so, and there was already a fairly full parking lot of people there to cast their ballots. Except: none of the machines were working. And people were growing increasingly testy about it. And then they left. Maybe not all of them, but when I turned around at the edge of the sidewalk — I had to go home and take my kid to catch the school bus — it looked like it was close enough, with people steadily streaming out to their cars.
On Twitter, I saw Lochwood wasn’t alone. The machines were out at North Dallas High School, and I saw reports from other places of machines not working or there being not enough machines in operation (apparently) because election officials didn’t get enough power strips from the county. And there was this:
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The voting machine ate my ballot. And then the computer system shows I haven’t checked in. And election officials have no idea. I’m increasingly worried about this digital system… #dallas #supertuesday #uhoh #voting pic.twitter.com/gPFpVYxwQT
— Rob Shearer (@robshearer) March 3, 2020
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I eventually was able to vote at the Lakewood library, but I’m wondering about the people who had to leave Lochwood. Will they be able to make enough time in their day to vote? Will they find another location with enough working machines? Dallas has a low enough turnout as is. We don’t need any more roadblocks.
Did you run into problems this morning?
