On Election Day, a bewildered elderly woman couldn't negotiate her voting issues at Precinct 6

I went to vote today at Mercer Park Aquatic Center, Iowa City's Precinct 6, and I had to wait longer than usual to vote. The hype has worked. It was about 10:00 a.m. and there were many other stalwart souls who'd braved the same barrage of phone calls, visitors, and mailings that I did and waited till Election Day to vote.

A bewildered elderly woman held up the line a bit as she argued with a poll worker. She was apparently at the wrong polling station or had applied for an absentee ballot and hadn't brought it with her. She was upset that someone else in her building was allowed to vote. She wasn't. I heard a poll worker say something about how "there's a thin line." Apparently that thin line split a building in two or maybe she'd asked for an absentee ballot. Who knows.

I urged her to go to the Auditor's office to find out where she was supposed to vote, but she'd been there long enough. She hadn't got the answer she wanted and she wasn't about to go somewhere else. I could understand why, since she was physically impaired, but it seemed as though the problem was really that she wouldn't take no for an answer.

I should have given her the Auditor's office phone number or asked for her address and called them myself. I don't know if anyone told her where she was supposed to vote. A poll worker had just started asking about her problem when she went home in disgust after speaking to a couple of others. She said she was just going to "forget it," forget about voting.

Now I did think of giving out the Auditor's phone number when a young man behind me in line found out he was at the wrong polling station. I remembered the Auditor's phone number, having found it for a young friend the day before, and I gave it to the young man, who called, and found out he was supposed to vote at Tate High School a short distance away. He said he was going to Tate and knew where it was.

A poll worker told me I'd already voted before I got through the line to vote.

Startled, I said, "No I haven't!"

I couldn't imagine why she would say such a thing. She collected herself and mumbled some sort of explanation of her error that didn't make sense to me, but whatever.

It was bizarre. I was allowed to vote, and it's a good thing. If they thought the other woman made a fuss they would have had more trouble with me if I wasn't allowed to vote.

There was a scholarly, legal eagle type of person observing the polling station. I hope he was taking notes.

There's a drizzly, cold rain outside. Dress warmer than you did yesterday if you still haven't gone out to vote. The polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. today, Nov. 6th, Tuesday.

If you need to find out where to vote in Johnson County, call 319-356-6004 and give staff your address. They can tell you where you're supposed to vote.

Make sure you educate yourself about what's going to be on your ballot as best you can before you vote. Make sure you turn your ballot over to vote for or against Iowa judges and the Johnson County Justice Center.