Meet the IC students who weren’t able to vote

Today’s the day America’s been waiting for – but has also been anxious about. Election Day is finally here and many people across the country have either voted already or are in the process of voting.

Many people are posting on social media encouraging people to go out and vote, to fulfill their civic duty as American citizens – but then there are others who were told they could not vote today.

Voting registration opened up months ago in several states.  Many people sent out their absentee ballot forms and registered to vote online. However, due to some issues that remain unresolved, some IC students were told they were not registered to vote.

Annie Sparaco is a senior, television and radio major from South Jersey. Sparaco expressed her frustration about not receiving her absentee ballot in the mail, even after being registered to vote.

“I sent in my first form in the beginning of October but I didn’t receive it in a couple of weeks, so I sent in another one two weeks ago just in case I wrote the wrong zip code or something. When I wasn’t receiving it in my mailbox, I called my local city council who took days to finally answer the phone. They said they sent it out last Wednesday and that’s when I finally realized I lost my ability to vote when I didn’t see it in my mailbox today. I wanted to be a part of voting for the first female presidential candidate. I was supposed to be with her and it’s actually quite upsetting because this is the first time I was registered for a presidential election. So I couldn’t vote unless I traveled 5 hours home for a day.”

MaryBeth Cooper is a senior, cinema & photography major and writing minor from South Carolina, and she recently found out she wasn’t registered to vote.

“I registered to vote online for the state of South Carolina before the October 9 deadline, but never received my registration card and am apparently not in the system as registered to vote either. A couple weeks ago I checked to make sure I was registered. And I was, but now I’m not. I didn’t do anything about it because I didn’t realize it until after the deadline, so there was nothing I could do.”

Tiarra Braddock is a senior, journalism major from Ann Arbor, MI who found out she wasn’t registered to vote, even after sending in her voter registration form.

“I sent in my absentee ballot to the Michigan Secretary of State and I got a phone call from a MI SOS worker saying that I wasn’t registered. I was confused on why I wasn’t registered because I had filled out the voter registration information in July. I didn’t get any explanation of what happened to my registration. So now I can’t vote and I was very upset when I found out. I don’t get my opinion registered and many more people won’t get their opinions heard either.”

Killi Bell is a junior, Journalism major and she expressed her issue with not knowing what state to send her absentee ballot from.

“When I was 16, my family moved to Texas [from Delaware] and I was issued my permit that would soon turn into my license. However, I moved back to Delaware when I was 17 to live with my grandparents. When it came to voting, I wondered where my ballot would come from. I asked my mom and she said I’m still technically a Texas resident with a Delaware license. In the end we just decided to eliminate all problems by not worrying about it at all.

“However, when it came to today, a few of my professors asked who voted. I was shocked to see I wasn’t alone in the group of hands that were still down. I moved around and honesty don’t know which state I’m an absentee from. Most people asked the obvious question “well, how do you not know?”, which was annoying. Others just talked about how important this election is. Yes I do realize it’s a privilege, but the privilege I wasn’t afforded prevented me from having to choose between the lesser of two evils”.