Voting and Asking for Assistance

You don’t have to be an American to get the general idea that our politics have been pretty insane over the last ten years. For the 2020 Presidential Election, I decided to go in person to vote rather do mail-in vote.

Now, most polling locations are served by volunteers, mostly senior citizens. I made the half mile drive to the station, and the sweet little old lady took my ID, then said I needed to sign the tablet with my signature EXACTLY as it is on my driver’s license. I panicked and said that I couldn’t, and explained ET and how I shake (my handwriting was already atrocious being a lefty). She said I know what that is, no problem, and she took out a cardboard template to put over the tablet so my signature would at least stay in the lines.

Okay, that’s achieved. Went to the voting booth and had to only fill in one of two circles to cast my vote. Barely accomplished, but accomplished. You put your vote in a privacy sleeve then walk to another location where you’re instructed to feed your ballot into a scanning machine. This little, narrow slit to feed the paper into. Oh crap. I can’t.

The machine was manned by a gentleman in his upper seventies (at least), and as he was giving me instructions, I simply said, “I need assistance.” No way in hell I’d be able to feed that little piece of paper into the machine with my tremors. No way. Kudos to the whole polling process, the man asked if I was able to complete my ballot (I said yes) and he said they are all trained to help those who need assistance. Next time, if I need help filling out my ballot, a volunteer could confidentially help me do that. He took my ballot and fed it through the machine and bid me good day with a smile that I’ll never forget.

It was the first time I’ve ever asked strangers for help completing the most basic of tasks. I got my “I voted” sticker and proudly wore it back to my car. I felt liberated in a way, acknowledging that the shakes are permanent and getting worse and will never ever go away. It’s okay to ask for help. It’s all okay.

Until I got into my car and sobbed in the car park for a good ten minutes. 

This will never go away.