Years ago, a woman in front of me was being harassed as she tried to vote. (Mostly because the election operators were tired and the woman was getting stressed trying to communicate in English only.) I agreed to sign-on as an interpreter to help her go through the process of filling out the ballot in Spanish. It took two hours (my Spanish is not so good, folks). But it was mainly patience that was needed in this situation.

Voter intimidation comes in many forms and we all can help by being present.

As for Burma, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the Nobel prize still is in prison because of the fight for democracy. I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t vote. Thanks for the reminder of what a privilege it is.

I’ve known people tortured to protect the right to vote. We take it for granted.

There was a strange occurrence with the guy behind me. He told the official his only voter ID card is from 5 years ago and asked if he can still vote. The official said yes.

He then said his wallet was stolen and asked if he can vote without a picture ID. The official said yes.

The guy then said he’d be back later and left.

Everyone wondered what was up.
We concluded he was watching the polls to see if people were being allowed to vote. He was likely headed to another polling place to continue his test.

No voting place I saw yesterday had a line.