I WENT TO VOTE AND THE DOORS WERE LOCKED!!

By Lori York

July 1, 2024

This is my experience on Election day here in Montezuma County:  I went to vote IN PERSON and arrived at the County Annex Building around 5:05 pm.  I was SHOCKED to find the doors were locked!  I looked through the glass doors and all I could see was a cleaning cart sitting near the set of double doors. I could not see ANY people, any tables, any signs inside pointing to voting here. This gave me the immediate impression that everyone was GONE, and they were cleaning up. I tried the doors several times. I went over to the senior center doors. Also locked.   I came back to the Annex doors, tried again, still locked.  I read the sign on the door: “voting Center open till 7 pm.”

So, I went over to the Clerk & Recorder office in the county center.  I went in &and said I want to vote IN PERSON.  I was told I have to go to a different building.  Me: “I know that!  The DOORS ARE LOCKED” There was some confusion amongst the clerks there and the clerk I was talking to got Danielle from the Election Office for me.  Danielle said that they forgot that the doors at the Annex automatically LOCK at 5 pm.   And then she called the women over at the polling center to tell them to please prop the doors open.  My thought:  You FORGOT that the doors lock at 5 pm?? And you didn’t prepare for that??? How many times now have you used the Annex for a voting center?? 

So, I went BACK to the Annex to vote. Doors were propped open.  The tables and voting area were at the BACK of the room. Totally invisible if you are standing outside looking in the doors.  I asked the cleaning woman if she could move her cleaning cart away from the doors as it gave a wrong impression. I actually pushed it out of the way.  I also mentioned to the women at the voting area that I came and found the doors were LOCKED, and since they were so far back in the room, a person locked out could not see if anyone was still in the building.  No one seemed concerned.  I had no trouble getting my ballot & voting. The women there were very nice.

When I got home & started thinking about what had happened, I got angry.  WHAT IF another person who was not as stubborn as me came upon locked doors and what appeared to be an empty building, would they have made a fuss? Would they have taken the extra time to go to the Election Office and inquire into why the doors were locked? Or would they have just shrugged their shoulders and gone home ?   Was the whole set up to suppress voting in person? 

A friend of mine went to vote in person earlier in the day and thought that she could vote at the Clerk & Recorder office.  She was told that she did not vote there, but at a different building. Where? she asked. “The Senior Center” was the answer.  A person from the Election Office even agreed that Yes, vote at the SENIOR CENTER.  So, she went to the Senior Center & found the doors locked. No signs posted. Some confusion. But she did decide to walk around to the other side of the building and then found the doors to go through to vote.  She got her ballot, voted, but was NOT instructed where to place her ballot (NOT in the box for mail-in ballots)  and then she asked for a “I VOTED” sticker”  Oh , the women said they do have some of those, and had to look in a box for them.  Is it too much to ask that they give these to everyone who comes in to vote?  Why else do they have them?

Initially, I was happy that there were larger signs posted on the sides of the roads next to the Annex parking lot, but for a first time In-Person Voter it was STILL CONFUSING. 

WHY was it “forgotten” that the doors automatically lock at 5pm?

WHY weren’t the women there trained to be aware of that?

WHY was the election area pushed to the BACK of the room?

I am sorry, I am trying to be objective, but I can’t help thinking this was all on purpose. Or maybe, they JUST DO NOT CARE! 

I now believe that Election Integrity people will need to be all around the voting area on November 5.  To direct people, to help them find their way, to be sure doors are not locked.

If anyone else had any issues with voting in person, would you please email me at chronicles.cortez@gmail.com?

We will continue to push IN-PERSON VOTING for the next election.  Mail-In ballots are a HUGE source of fraud, especially now with Illegal Aliens being registered to vote, and there are no requirements to prove citizenship or show an ID to vote.  WE MUST push AGAINST mail-in ballots and against the Election Machines.