Hearing from voters visiting Election Plaza
Posted: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 3:00 PM by Sam Go
From Maria Alcon, NBC's Making Your Vote Count unit at Election Plaza
We are all set up at the Making Your Vote Count camera position in Rockefeller Plaza updating our viewers on problems. And we’re hearing from voters right here too.
Lisa Shannon, 36, who owns a spa, says it took her 45 minutes to vote this morning but that’s only because she didn’t know her district. She was shocked that no one asked her for identification. (New York actually does not require it) "I filled out a paper ballot, but who knows if that gets counted," said Ms.Shannon. In this day and age, she says, she wishes she could vote by e-mail, and she finds the entire process horribly antiquated.
Americans are watching this election closely all around the world. We met up with Robin Rebolla who resides in Bristol, Australia but who has already voted absentee in New York City. She says it took her a month to get her ballot mailed to her in Australia, but that the process was pretty simple. Everyone there is watching, she says, and she sees reports on the United States election there all the time. "If you really want to vote, it’s not hard to do it overseas," she says.
Many people got up very early to vote. Joel Bank, from Brooklyn, was the first on line at his table. He’s been a poll worker before so he knew it was important to get there early because he says the lines in the afternoon can get really long. He says the only problem at his voting location was that a lot of new voters did not know their district, and those who were new citizens needed more interpreters.
Victoria Smith, originally from Ghana, Africa, voted for the first time. She says it took her five minutes, and "it was peaceful."
And those visiting New York, like David Paulsen, from Sacramento, California made sure he mailed in his ballot before his trip. He says he is a permanent voter by mail in his state which makes the process a breeze. He’s never had problems but he is upset that he will be flying back home tonight when the results come in so he will not find out the results of the election.
Update -- 6:30 p.m. ET
The states are being unveiled literally next to our set. There is a team organizing the different cut-outs of states that will be placed on the Rockefeller skating rink ice as the states are called for each candidate. It's blue for Sen. Barack Obama, red for Sen. John McCain. Everyone is mesmerized by the process.
Tad Wilson, 39, came down with his eleven-year old son Taylor, to watch it all unfold in the plaza. He took his son with him so he could watch him vote this morning at 9:30 a.m. He says there were about 120 people in front of him in the line but that everything was well-organized and it only took him 35 minute to vote. "It was so low tech, I expected computers," said his son. Mr. Wilson says he was pretty nervous in the voting booth trying to pull the lever forcefully to make his vote count. But the road was not an easy one. Mr. Wilson says it took him months to get registered. He moved within New York City and assumed that his registration would be transferred. (It does not, one must register every time one moves.) So when he voted in the primary back in April via mail, he got a notice in the mail weeks later that his vote didn't count and that he needed to re-register. He sent his registration application several times because he kept waiting for his confirmation and never received it. He even went to both candidates' Web sites looking for help on what to do to make sure his registration application had gone through. Finally, he went to the election office in his district and got his application time stamped and submitted. That did the trick.
So today, when Mr. Wilson went to vote, he was relieved to find a blissful ending to his otherwise long voting process. Tonight, he says he wants "to watch the states light up, and see a new king be crowned."
Mr. Wilson is not the only one looking forward to the NBC News Decision 2008 Plaza experience. Trishia Harvey, 43, a therapist from Philadelphia, took the train this morning after getting on line at 5 a.m. to vote in her district. She waited two hours for the polls to open but she was fourth in line so it didn't take her too long. She took no chances this time. She brought along with her "zipper envelope" with her birth certificate, passport and Social Security card just in case someone asked her for it, even though her state does not require it. "I didn't want any problems at all, none whatsoever."
David Dobbins, a 27-year-old graduate student, was also hoping there would be no problems this time around. He says he was a disenfranchised voter in 2000 and was unable to vote because when he got to the polls his name was not on the list. So this time, he got to the polls in Queens at 6 a.m. and was inside the voting booth by 7:45am. He says everything was very well organized.
Let's hope others were as lucky as he was.
