Tuesday, April 7, 2009

No love for north side voters

The City of Madison decided that Election Day was the perfect time to tear up the service drive in Warner Park that connects the baseball stadium's parking lot with that of the Community Center. That means that voters who entered the park from North Sherman Avenue discovered halfway that they could not get there from here.

There was no visible signage near the park entrance to warn voters that they had to access the polling place from Northport Drive. By the time I realized that the heavy equipment in the back corner of the parking lot was actually excavating the narrow service drive just beyond the parking lot, I figured it would be quicker to park there and walk across the park than to turn around and make three left turns during morning rush hour in order to drive there.

When I returned to my car, there were at least a dozen other vehicles parked in the vicinity and a few other hardy voters making the trek.

I was late to work. If I didn't feel so strongly about the importance of voting, I might have blown it off rather than go through the additional hassle. I suspect that at least some voters in my ward did just that. If I lived in Brenda Konkel's district, I might suspect that Mayor McCheese was deliberately trying to suppress turnout.

1 comment:

Dekerivers said...

The City of Madison should have had better signs up to allow for voters to cast their votes in a timely fashion. I also am concerned about how the lack of ballots proved to be a problem for a spring election. That too should never have happened.