The Great Voting Disaster of 2006

Around two o'clock thursday afternoon, Roane County election Commissioner, Tony Brown predicted a record turnout of between 18,000 and 20,000 voters. This morning the talley is just over 12,000. Between 4000 and 8000 voters turned away from impossibly long lines. The wait was between an 1 hour and 2 1/2 hours depending upon precinct.

At the precinct I was at, we saw cars slowing to turn in and then going on their way after seeing the long line backing out of the building. We saw people leaving after hearing they would have to wait almost two hours. Some got their check in ticket and left after waiting for as much as an hour...giving up.

At one precinct voters who had been standing as long as two hours were stunned when an election official escorted the son and daughter in law of a local Republican official past them and up to the front of the line. People left the line in anger and went home.

Some people working evening shifts had to leave and go to work after standing in line for almost two hours.

Angry, disgusted, disappointed...

At 6:00 we estimated that our precinct would not finish voting until midnite. When the results were turned in before ten o'clock we knew what had happened.

note: I do not believe at this point that this had any bearing on winners and losers but I haven't had much chance to analyze the talley. I will point out that the greatest number of people who were unable to cast ballots were those who hold jobs and arrived after work thinking they could vote on their way home.

congratulations to the winners...

Peace,

Steve



On a positive note...I was wrong about George Bush signing himself a nice 12.7 million dollar bonus. The Estate Tax repeal failed to pass the Senate. I predict that if the republicans hold the majority in the Fall, the estate tax will suffer the same fate as Social Security.