A Day in the Life ... Nassau County, New York
Jeff Wice writes: As a special counsel to the Nassau County (NY) Legislature, I was asked to serve as a "circuit" attorney traveling to polling places in minority communities. As it happened, I was first assigned to the polling places in North Valley Stream/Elmont where I grew up and voted for 23 years.
When I was in high school there in the late 1960s, I was always getting involved in civil rights efforts in this segregated community. Even though I lived farther away, I was "bussed" to a high school where African-Americans lived much closer. They were assigned to another high school even farther away.
My pre-election day assignment was short lived. After learning of my polling places, the county leaders overruled the assigning attorney who subsequently sent me to Roosevelt and Uniondale, both heavily African American and Hispanic. In Roosevelt, the state had to come in and take over the school system because things got so bad there financially. If elections are to break down anywhere in the county, Roosevelt and Uniondal were likely places. Such is life when you volunteer back home. Maybe, as Thomas Wolfe penned it, "you can't go home again." Just close.
As Election Day progressed yesterday, voting and any excitement were as slow as molasses i my communties. Steady, if somewhat low voting at my polling places. Until 7:30 PM, when everything fell apart at one precinct at Uniondale High School. One machine jammed and the elections inspectors didn;t know what to do about the 50 people who were in line to vote. The woman in the booth when the machine jammed left with the shift level left in place, and the machine jammed. She was told her vote would count (not likely). Others were told they could vote at an adjoining precinct's machine (illegal). The inspector feigned ignorance on how to use a cell phone to call for help. People began leaving. Once the machine was fixed (a little banging hehre and there) one voter was informed that the paper ballot cast could be ripped up and that a machine vote could be case (against the rules?) A call went to HQ and I was sent over to investigate and report. This was all important last night because of concerns that the congressional race in NY's 6th CD might be close (it wasn't).
I saw plenty of action during the last 30 minutes of voting. In the end, none of the local elections were close. At least I had the opportunity to help some voters overcome their frustration and to make sure that balloting proceeded despite the machine breakdown.