White Women Can't Vote in MoCo?

From Sally Hand:

I have been voting since 1977, and a registered voter in Maryland since January 2006. Yet when I went to vote at my local polling place I was told I was not a registered voter in the state of Maryland. Even with my voter registration card the BOE had made several errors.

First the person looking me up in the system could not use the system. He had no idea what to do until a member of the Board of Elections came over and showed him how to use the database. He found me but in the wrong district.

Then I called a voter suppression number who told me to go back to the precinct I had voted in the last election. I went there they did have me on the rolls but since I moved over 21 days ago I couldn't vote there. At least here they had me fill out an official change of address.

So I went back to the first polling place – they gave me a provisional ballot (who knows if it will get counted) and I voted manually.

This took several hours – going back and forth. What if I hadn't fought back – knowing that I had my card from the BOE? What if I didn't have a car so I could easily go from poll to poll?

What I found out was there were a lot of these errors – many people in my precinct voted provisionally because of change of address issues. The only response from BOE – must be a computer error. COMPUTER ERROR – if these guys can't get the changes of addresses right how can we trust them with computerized / no paper trail ballots?

I called BOE this morning to make sure they had it right for the November election. Answer they will have to look into it and get back to me.

I will keep you posted – but I have lost faith in the BOE and believe that they need oversight. If we can't trust the BOE then all elections are full of doubt.

Update: After calling the BOE, I have received a change of address card similar to the one the sent me in Dec. 2006 – but still no voter registration card.