southernhybrid
Contributor
We didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes when we voted early in the general election, but the Republicans cut back early voting to one week this time. Some counties had Saturday and Sunday voting but mine didn't. I have a feeling that the line will probably be shorter on Tuesday, when there are a lot of voting sites throughout the county, but it appears as if people simply wanted to get the voting over with, so a huge number of people voted early. There is only one early voting site in my county.We waited in line for an hour to vote,
I really have a hard time accepting that these long waits aren't the plan to discourage people from voting. I've never waited more than 2 minutes to get my ballot. It takes me longer to fill out the ballot than it does to get it.
We use voting machines and the vote itself took less than a minute. It took more time to check our IDs and make sure that we are eligible to vote, and then check us off the list. We then print out a ballot and put it into another machine. I triple checked my ballot to make s sure I voted for Warnock. I probably should have voted absentee like a close friend of mine did. All she had to do is bring her ballot to the voting place, walk into the office and put it in a drop box.
Black voter turn out was huge in the Atlanta metro area. I'm hoping it will be the same in my county, despite not seeing many Black folks in line yesterday. My city is slightly majority Black and all of my Black friends do vote, but the younger Black residents are harder to motivate to vote. Actually, that's the case for most younger voters. There were no younger voters in line yesterday that I noticed. Anyone can vote absentee in Georgia, but you must request an absentee ballot by a certain date. It's not that hard to vote here, if you know the rules and are determined to vote. Another friend of mine always votes on Election Day because her precinct is never crowded and she can vote quickly. This is the first time I've had to wait in a long line to vote in about 20 years.