Takin' the Blog for a Walk

Seems I voted the same as most around here, except for the questions. I seem to have got those wrong.

Appears Waukesha wasn't prepared for the large turnout at the polls even though the numbers fell within what I had heard predicted. The many absentee ballots took some of the blame.

My experience at the poll;
Three wards but just one with a line - mine. About 13 in front of me around 7:15 p.m. Six voting booths, all being used with a short line waiting. A moderate line of people registering. City Clerk Thomas Neil in attendance a short while checking on things.

Am almost at the front of the queue with just one voter in front of me and the line stops a good five minutes. The guy's voted there before but his name is not on the list. While someone calls City Hall on a borrowed cell phone the line doesn't move. It now reaches the back of the gym. The line doesn't move because apparently the gal on the phone was needed for her initials, her blessing, or her map reading skills - I don't know, but that line wasn't going anywhere without her. While all this is going on the two remaining poll workers in the ward continue logging in the absentee ballots. To their credit they did discuss resuming the line but they decided they couldn't without the missing one.

In the end it was discovered that the voter's name was on the list but misspelled. It seemed to me and the people around me in line that something like this could have been planned for a little better. Why hold up an entire line for at least five minutes over a misspelling? At least we didn't have to wait for a voting booth when the line resumed.

I asked the person sitting next to me on the way to work Wednesday why she didn't vote. Didn't know who was running. "But you didn't have to vote in every category. Didn't you feel strongly about the questions?" Didn't know what the questions were. Wow, I wonder when she's going to get her power turned back on!