Voting in Hogansville, Georgia

The small, historic Luthersville community center serves as the polling station for voters in this area every four years, and rural Meriwether County Georgia residents turned out on Tuesday to support their candidate of choice. As we pulled down the gravel drive, we could see the small parking lot behind the building was filled with cars.

Like most small towns, when ever there is a reason to gather, it is a reason to visit, and Tuesday was no different. Small comfortable groups were scattered about, neighbors catching up with each others business. The talk was kids, family, jobs, and home life, just about anything, and everything, but politics.

As we entered, the smiling volunteers greeted us cheerfully. After showing our identification, my husband and I took our place in line, waiting for one of the six voting machines to become available. There was even a variety of non prescription reading glasses, waiting on a small table near the voting machines, for people like myself, that had rushed out the door, without their reading glasses.

As we watched the man in front of us approached his voting machine, with his plastic yellow card. He slid the card into the slot, and then looked puzzled, after scratching his head, he asked a voter next to him for advice. After that person looked at the screen, he told the man he was done. Well now the guy really looked confused, and he called over one of the attendant volunteers. She looked at the screen and told him he was done too. The man said " But I did not vote yet." The volunteer looked like she felt terrible, but she told him "it says the ballot was cast, and it is one voter name, one vote, I can not let you vote again." He protested again, that he didn't get to vote, but, the volunteer was firm, it said he voted. He left, looking quite disappointed.

My husband and I saw what happened, the man really did not get to vote. When he put his card in the machine, it had come up at the last screen, when he pushed the green next button, thinking he was proceeding with the voting process, it closed out, saying ballot cast.

My husband and I did uneventfully manage to cast our votes, you know you are in a small town when the incumbents are the only choices for local representatives.

I can not help but wonder though, how many people were deprived of their right to vote, by glitches in the technologically advanced voting system used these days? Hanging chads, or not, I think we should return to good old paper voting system.