airport blues

the polling station at bethany christian church,where locals have voted for decades, was closed to voting by the city about a month ago with little warning, along with about a dozen others scattered throughout the city. their reasoning? the church did not have proper access for the handicapped, despite not receiving a single complaint from any voters in any of the previous elections. the management at the church only found out about the closure through hearsay, and called the city to confirm; bizarrely, by that point the city had already sent the church a letter confirming the church as a polling station for the 2004 election.

needless to say, something’s up. so inspired, i decided to show up at the church come 7am this morning, to help out with the effort to help avert confusion for the local populace; happily, i discovered that there was already an effort in place to do just that, organized by the League of Women Voters. joriel and i volunteered with them to redirect would-be voters to their designated polling stations, armed with maps and other info.

the vigil

all in all, we directly assisted about 60 folks, none of whom had any idea that bethany was closed to voting. one poor person showed up 10 minutes before the polls closed, and i gave her directions as quickly as i could before she sped off. everyone who came by expressed gratitude for our efforts, and i feel the long 11 hours we stood (well, sat) vigil on forest hill avenue was time well spent.