I want you to know that Tim Robbins is not the only one with his name either left off or misplaced in the voter rolls; it's happened today with many apartment dwellers in Sharon Height, Menlo Park, CA 94025.

This morning, I went to the La Entrada polling place across the street from our apartment. We've voted there many times in that past few years that we've been at this address. There has never been a problem... and it has never been divided into two precincts before. This time, based on my address, they sent me to the precinct table where my name was not on the rolls, nor my wife's. I was extremely hesitant to accept the provisional ballot that the organizer was pushing. She was trying very hard to convince me that it was "... just fine, my vote would certainly be counted, no problem, just let me write your name down on this pad of paper." I'm aware of the "inconsistencies" and "discarding" problems associated with provisional ballots and I was wondering how many other voters would have to give provisional ballots... but the story wasn't over.

At that moment, a woman came over from the other side of the polling place, from the other precinct. She said that indeed she was not on the rolls just as I was not, but she decided to check the other precinct, "just in case." Sure enough she was on that voting roll.

So over I marched, across the polling place to the "other" precinct. There I found my name, that of my wife, AND ALL THE OTHER ADDRESSES WITH APARTMENT NUMBERS! For some reason, the apartment buildings got "switched" and those voters were being encouraged to fill in provisional ballots. On exiting, I asked another organizer if he would please make sure that people check BOTH precincts for their names.

When my wife went in, hours later, she was told that it was an even versus odd address issue, and people were still routinely sent to the "wrong" precinct. At least they were being told to check the other rolls first, before taking a provisional ballot.

This may very well be a simple mistake or mis-communication, but I find it very suspect that ALL the addresses with misplaced precincts were apartments; with apartments likely being more representative of democrats in our otherwise highly affluent neighborhood of Sharon Heights, Menlo Park, CA. 94025.

ryan

--
Ryan N Coffee
Research Associate, PULSE Center
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
2575 Sand Hill Road, Mail Stop 59
Bldg. 28, Rm. 27
Menlo Park, CA  94025
650-926-4608
coffee_at_slac.stanford.edu