{"id":4415,"date":"2020-10-28T10:12:35","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T10:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=4415"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:52:37","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:52:37","slug":"adventures-of-a-curbside-voter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2020\/10\/28\/adventures-of-a-curbside-voter\/","title":{"rendered":"My adventures with curbside voting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elections remind me of ABC\u2019s \u201cThe Bachelor.\u201d Each season is billed as the \u201cmost dramatic ever.\u201d <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And sure enough, a fiercely contested election in a global pandemic is, of course, the \u201cmost dramatic ever.\u201d For me, it\u2019s also my first chance to vote for a president. I knew it would be memorable, but it took on more urgency when I was quarantined three weeks before Election Day. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That foiled my voting plans. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Until Oct. 31, the last day of early voting, I would not be allowed to enter the polls. If I contracted the coronavirus myself, my quarantine could extend through Nov. 3, Election Day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
An occasional series on the 2020 election in North Carolina.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I did not want to take a risk with a mail-in ballot arriving in time. The solution: vote early, but do it curbside.\u00a0 According to the North Carolina State Board of Elections, voters are eligible to vote from their car <\/span>due to age or disability<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> You also qualify if you have symptoms of COVID-19 or are at risk of getting it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So last Wednesday afternoon, my roommate drove us to the Karsh Alumni & Visitors Center at Duke, one of 14 early voting locations in Durham County.<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We pulled up to the\u00a0 \u201ccurbside voting here\u201d sign and were greeted by Kate, a poll worker who wore a fluorescent yellow jacket and a blue cloth mask. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I sat in the passenger seat as Kate asked why we would like to vote curbside and explained that we would have to sign an <\/span>affidavit<\/span><\/a> asserting that we could not go inside. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI do solemnly swear or affirm that I am a registered voter in precinct 3…that because of age or physical disability I am unable to enter the voting place to vote in person without physical assistance…\u201d it began.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We verbally agreed.<\/span> Kate then took our names and went inside to print a document that certified our name and address, and bring out our ballots. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She returned moments later with both documents in a purple plastic sleeve.<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She then explained the application and ballot \u2013 <\/span>sign here and here, read through all contests and fill in the bubbles, flip the ballot over and do the same on the other side<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We each checked our name and address again, and signed the affidavit. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And so I sat in the passenger seat of my roommate\u2019s car with my mask on and voted in my first presidential election. <\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kate stood off to the side of the car while we filled out the ballots.\u00a0 When we finished, we waved to her to collect them. Unlike typical in-person voting, we could not feed our ballots into the tabulator machine ourselves.<\/span> We\u2019d have to trust that Kate would take care of that. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our reward was the same as other early voters: a metallic retractable Board of Elections \u201cI voted in the 2020 election! \u201dpen) and the delightfully Durham \u201cNo Bull, I Voted\u201d sticker.\u00a0 The whole process took 32 minutes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the most dramatic election ever, but it was very much on brand with the surprises of 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reporter Michaela Towfighi talks with an elections worker at the early voting site at the Karsh Alumni & Visitors Center at Duke. Photo by Henry Haggart | The 9th Street Journal\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elections remind me of ABC\u2019s \u201cThe Bachelor.\u201d Each season is billed as the \u201cmost dramatic ever.\u201d \u00a0 And sure enough, a fiercely contested election in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[71,135,271],"class_list":["post-4415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-coronavirus","tag-election-2020","tag-the-vote","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nMy adventures with curbside voting - 9th Street Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you're quarantined because of COVID-19 (or the fear you might have it), you can vote from your car. 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