By Sue Strachan, Mid-City Messenger
Mid-City resident Andrea Portales almost didn’t get to vote.
She had lost her driver’s license and had to go to the DMV to get a new one. That was Oct. 23.
On the afternoon of Nov. 3, Election Day, her new driver’s license was delivered by the post office at 4 p.m. “I went straight to my polling station,” she said at Warren Easton High School, where she voted on Election Day.
Voting is important to Portales, the human resource coordinator at New Orleans City Park, because she missed out voting due to a misunderstanding in her first presidential election, in 2004.
Portales used a voter’s guide to help her with choices such as the judges, and Googled Olin Parker, who was running for the Orleans Parish School Board, to find out more.
Portales was also particularly concerned about in Amendment No. 1 and Amendment No. 5, which “allowed local governments to set up a procedure for new or expanding manufacturers to make payments in lieu of property taxes.”
Even after her research, Portales did something no doubt quite a few people did today: She left her voting notes at home.
Fortunately, “I remembered them all,” she said.
For Mid-City resident Robin Burgess, “Democracy is on the ballot, the future of our country.”
Burgess, president of Burgess Management, went straight to the point about the 2020 election. “Hate has to take a backseat,” she said. “We need understanding and empathy.”
“I really have to believe with all of the craziness, Trump allowing coronavirus to rage across the nation and riling up violence, the barricading and the lies,” she said. “We have to believe with America voting in record numbers that there are more people like me and our friends, than the other guy. The other guy who wants to hold America back.”
In addition to the impassioned presidential election, there were a lot of local races for judges and School Board members, and statewide amendments, as well as yea or nay for sports wagering.
Burgess, a Mid-City resident, voted early, though “with mixed emotions,” because she and her husband, six-time Grammy award winner and Oscar-nominated musician Terence Blanchard, wanted to be in town for the election. But with COVID-19 and other things, it was difficult to be sure.
“It would have been nice to feel like what it would be like at the polls,” she said.
Among her concerns locally were with the amendments and the judges. Of Amendment No. 1, which proposes adding language to the Louisiana Declaration of Rights that says that nothing in the state’s constitution can be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion, Burgess said: “We want the right to choose, yet anti-abortion activists say it isn’t our right. That confuses me, because you are making the choice for everyone.”
Soule Rome, a chef at New Orleans Creole Cookery, also voted at Warren Easton High School in the late afternoon. There was no line to wait in.
The race that was most important to him was the U.S. representative race. “Cedric Richmond is a fair guy,” he said.
He watched TV ads and read the fliers mailed to him to do his research on the other local races.
Kent Ozborn, a resident of Mid-City for 10 years, said, “There was so much on the ballot.” Ozborn, who went to the Firehouse No. 25 to vote, turned to friends who are attorneys to get their opinions about judges.
It took him about 45 minutes to vote, he said, because of the length of the ballot. “If you don’t have everything right and a list of everything, a lot of people can take longer,” he said.
Kyle Melancon, graphic design manager for LSU Health Sciences Center, used the voting guide that Antigravity Magazine produces. The independent publication is known for its voting guides.
The race he has his eye on is the U.S. Senate against incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy. Melancon said he favors candidate Antoine Pierce. “I had heard him speak before, and he seemed to have some real common sense,” he said. “Practical and a really nice guy. I would like for him to do well.”
Melancon is another Mid-City resident who voted early. “I was just stressed about doing it today,” he said.
Echoing, no doubt, what many voters felt on Election Day.
"much" - Google News
November 04, 2020 at 10:11AM
https://ift.tt/34UlerE
'There was so much on the ballot': Mid-City voters admit to election stress - Mid-City Messenger
"much" - Google News
https://ift.tt/37eLLij
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "'There was so much on the ballot': Mid-City voters admit to election stress - Mid-City Messenger"
Post a Comment