Moments of Permanence - Category: How Is This Even Possible

From: dragonscrawl Date: May 7th, 2010 12:42 am (UTC) (Link)

Found this post via Latest Things and I felt compelled to respond.

The fact that voters were turned away without being allowed to vote boggles my mind as well. I'm American, so I suppose our election days may operate a bit more similarly to those in the UK. And yes, sometimes people get turned away without being allowed to vote.

But in my experience as an election officer overseeing the voting process? It's only happened because someone arrived after the polls had already closed. The local policy about being in line when the polls close is that you get to cast your vote if you're in line when the polls close. In the four years I've been an election officer and worked the elections, I've only encountered this needing to happen once, when turnout already predicted to be higher than normal was anticipated during the presidential election of 2008 and attempted to compensate for. Then the turnout was higher even than anticipated at some precincts that were heavy in college students.

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