2020 Voting experience

Hi Friends,

I originally wrote my experience in Vietnamese for my Vietnamese friends. Recently, I received an article about voting, which give me the idea of sharing my experience.

We, Vietnamese usually joking that we are “Paper American”, our votes do not affect the result of an election. However, this time, the “King Channel” on YouTube convinces me to get more involved; (He is now in Florida for the sixth “Trump Day”).

I belong to a group called “Vote all incumbents out”. In 2016, I voted for Mr. Trump because he satisfied my criteria. As years go by, I notice that problems that I pointed out in one of my post “Problems of the USA” (in Vietnamese of course, Dec. 2019).

Following are items in that post:

1/ Illegal Immigration, + Anchor babies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_the_United_States

2/ Imbalance of trade with every other countries.

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/index.html

3/ The allied especially NATO do not pay their fair share:

https://money.cnn.com/2016/07/08/news/nato-summit-spending-countries/

Whatever I pointed out, Mr. Trump addressed!

I am in late seventies, and voted by mail for past 10 years. This time, I feel the importance of the election, and decided to vote “In person”.

This time, I worries about RETURNING my “Mail-in ballot” and did not pay much attention when a woman saying to herself when she got out of the voting place (City Hall of Grand Prairie): The voting machine is broken!

I entered the voting room, there were about 6, or 7 ladies to take care of voters. Two of them help me out with the task of retuning ballot. There were more than 10 voting machines for one with the task of selecting who to vote for.

I recalled of past voting machines, when there was a box of ONLY one candidate, regardless of his/her party, I had to vote for that person BEFORE I could hit the VOTE button.

This time, the machine allowed me to VOTE with that box Blank. I checked with one of those ladies, who confirmed with me that my ballot was acceptable with that selection.

This was what made me sorry for myself.

I got the voting machine printed out my ballot.

The last machine that supposed to scan my ballot, tabulate all ballots did not work.

I said “This machine does not accept unregistered ballots”

One of its doors was opened allowing voters to slide his/her ballot into its bottom part.

I heard one gentleman saying: “They did it again”

There was about 10 persons, including one black person refused to slide their ballots into that bottom part. I jointed them.

We all expressed our concerns. The head of the staff printed out a notice let people know about the problem of the polling place. This was done after a lady with her voted ballot suggest to people running the place.

Rule: Those who have the voted ballots CANNOT leave the room.

The lady in charge informed us that technician has been called, We have to wait for him. Later on, we were inform that the technician has to fix two other places before getting here!.

I waited from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM. Technician had not arrived yet.

The rest might have to wait until 3:00 PM. There was no restroom in the voting place!

I had to slide my ballot into the bottom section of the machine to go home.

My ballot might end up in the dumpter!

I include with is post picture of my ballot, Voted sticker.

10/13/2020

Hôm nay, ngày 13/10/2020; diện đồ veste đi làm bổn phận công dân. Tôi đem theo "Phiếu bầu qua bưu điện", dành cho người già đến phòng phiếu ở City Hall. Sau khi làm thủ tục trả phiếu bầu qua thư, thì được bầu "in person". Lựa chọn các ứng viên Cộng hoà; tuy vậy có vài đơn vị chỉ có một người duy nhất là Dân chủ. Mình hỏi nhân viên tại chỗ để trống không bầu thì phiếu có hợp lệ không? Trả lời hợp lệ. Mình bỏ trống mấy người này. Đến khi đem phiếu tới máy nhận + tổng kết phếu bầu thì gặp: "Máy đọc phiếu hư" phải bỏ phiếu vào một ngăn kéo bên dưới. Mình và lối mười người nữa không chịu, Yêu cầu nhân viên phòng phiếu kêu thợ xửa.

Họ nói đã gọi. Trong đám người chịu đợi thì tôi không thể đợi được nữa. Từ 8:30 AM tới11:00 AM nhân viên phòng phiếu nói người thợ xửa máy còn phải sửa ở HAI nơi khác nữa, trước khi tới tp Grand Prairie của mình.

Một khi đã bầu xong thì không được đem phiếu của mình ra khỏi phòng phiếu. Mấy người Mỹ ở lại canh có lẽ phải tới cỡ 3:00 PM mới có thợ.

Khi ra về, gặp hai vợ chồng Mỹ già, cầm phiếu bầu bằng thư đi vào. Mình kể họ nghe việc ở phòng phiếu, khuyên họ chiều trở lại. Họ muốn kiểm chứng, nên cám ơn, đi vào.

Phe Dân chủ này có cánh tay dài thiệt, chắc phải đổi thành "Chủ dân" mất.