Early Voting, County vs City

Why we need same day and paper ballots

Let me begin with the fact that early voting is a train wreck and a dumpster fire all wrapped into one.

Images of early voting

In Robertson County, we have several things going on in this election. We are voting for president, senator, state representative, and local alderman and commissioners. If you go to early vote in Robertson County, they have to make sure they pull up a ballot for county, or city. But which city? The ballot has to be specific, Cross Plains, White House, Springfield, and Greenbrier all have elections this fall. Sumner County is no different. You might just have a county ballot, but it might be White House, Hendersonville, or Millersville.

Already, I have received several complaints from citizens in Millersville that they have been to early vote, and have NOT received the correct ballot. Millersville, similar to White House, is in a couple of counties. On more than one occasion in this early vote, Millersville citizens have been given a ballot that does NOT contain Millersville candidates. In one instance, there were no city candidates at all, in two others, the resident was given a Goodlettsville ballot. This had happened in White House on election day two years ago. I had over heard at least two citizens state they couldn’t vote for the mayor. They doubled checked that they were in city limits, and they had to work with the poll workers.

THIS IS A TRAVESTY!!!! Your vote is the only power you have at this point in history. You don’t own a tank. You don’t have a drone. You can’t fight the government, and you can’t fight the developers. Your vote is IT!!!!

Let me be clear, (I grew up in a middle class family, wait, wrong article), I am not claiming that anything nefarious is going on. This is just pure chaos. On election day, at your precinct, there are only two choices. You can get the ballot for in city limits, or out of city limits. We vote at Woodall. That school is in Robertson County, and in the City of White House. As far as I know, the poll workers have two choices. Now, go to early vote in Springfield. The poll workers don’t know you, and they have 5-10 options to choose from. Are you in the county, or one of the 5+ cities with an election. Go over to Sumner County and it gets even worse. The wrong ballot is being given to these citizens. Did you catch that?? The wrong ballot.

Some of these people are elderly and don’t want to create a scene. Some of them don’t realize it was the wrong ballot until they get to the city section and realize it’s wrong. Bottom line, it shouldn’t happen.

Here’s a thought, paper ballots. One ballot is all of the national and US senate races, house races etc, the second ballot is your city. That way, if you start filling out the national race and get to the end and realize your city is wrong, it’s not an issue. You fill out the national race ballot, and get a second ballot that is specific to your city. The only early/mail in voting is done by special request. That’s it. Done. Make the day a federal holiday. Start voting at 5 am, and finish at 9pm. Everyone has the opportunity to vote. Make the cards like the ACT test. Fill in the bubble and feed it into the machine. Done. Safe. Effective.

Now what? Well, Millersville and Goodlettsville’s election is already starting off poorly. My guess is that is happening all over every county. My guess is there is more of it than the three people that reported in. You have to be diligent. You have to check your ballot before you vote. You have to PEACEFULLY and RESPECTFULLY get vocal. Speak up and tell them your ballot is wrong. Do not leave until it is corrected.

As my husband always says, “Don’t assume malice when it can be explained by incompetence.”