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HEADLINE NEWS
Last voter finally casts ballot in Presidential election at Cleveland precinct
CLEVELAND - Election officials in Cleveland, Ohio announced that the last voter in line for the 2008 Presidential election has finally cast his vote, nearly one year after election day. The notoriously slow 4th precinct will now begin the tabulation process. It is not expected the results will change the outcome of the 2008 election.
Lamar Johnson, the last person in America to vote in the race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, says it was worth the wait. "I could have gotten discouraged and walked away, but I was determined to have my voice heard," said a weary Johnson, anxious to get home and take a shower.
Cleveland's 4th precinct has regularly been plagued by a slow voting process. As one poll worker explained, "We only have two voting machines, of which only one works, some of the time, to take care of 12,000 registered voters." The poll worker continued, "We are an inner city precinct, so we get sent all the outdated equipment from the suburbs. The machines we have now were manufactured in 1956. One of them had "We Like Ike" scratched into the paint. We just left it, since Eisenhower wasn't on the ballot."
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Other poll workers related that on most days they were
lucky to get 25 voters to cast their ballot before the machine broke down. "Levers
would fall off. The curtain would jam. Sometimes we would sit around for days waiting for
the repairman." When asked how he and others were able to wait in line for so long, Mr. Johnson said, "We had help from friends and relatives. They brought food, chairs, televisions, foldaway beds, and stuff like that. Volunteers from ACORN also helped." He explained, "Sometimes they brought mannequins to hold our place in line while we ran errands or went to work." The role of ACORN in keeping the polling place open was controversial. Republicans claimed ACORN participated in voter fraud. Republican activist Sonny Darkcloud says when he tried to talk to some people in line, many were lifeless. "ACORN has a long history of bringing dead people to vote," said Darkcloud. When informed that it was actually mannequins to which he was attempting to speak, Darkcloud rumbled, "If dummies are allowed to vote, why the hell didn't we win the election?" |
Asked for whom he voted, Lamar Johnson said, "Well, that's a funny story." He explained, "I went to the polls intending to vote for Obama, but when I heard McCain's concession speech, I was really impressed. So for a few months I was leaning toward McCain, but then that Sarah Palin kept saying dumber and dumber things, so by time the Inauguration rolled around, I was back in Obama's camp." However, that was not the end of Johnson's decision making turmoil. "During the Spring, I was reading a lot from minor party candidates. For a few weeks I intended to vote for Ralph Nader, but I was drinking pretty heavily during that time period."
In the end, Johnson says he came back to where he started: Barack Obama. "After all those months of just sitting around and not doing much, I was getting pretty unhealthy, so I figured a public option for health insurance would probably be something I need."
Cleveland election officials say they are looking at ways to deal with the slow voting in the 4th precinct. According to Larry Yudontcount, "In 2012, we may open the polling place during the summer. We usually know who the nominees are by then. That way there is a chance the voting will be completed sometime before the inauguration."