Tuesday, May 6, 2008

The New York Times Polling Place Photo Project


(the only pic I have to prove I voted - a picture of my sticker)

The Polling Place Photo Project is a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that encourages voters to capture, post and share photographs of this year’s primaries, caucuses and general election. By documenting local voting experiences, participants can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America.

The Polling Place Photo Project is a program of The New York Times and AIGA, the professional association for design. William Drenttel of Design Observer initiated the project in 2006. The About page details the many participants who have contributed to this project.
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Too bad I just now heard about this - otherwise I would have brought my camera with me today when I ventured out to vote. If I had - I bet I would have had a much better time. I am pretty sure my blood pressure went through the roof at one point.

First off, we just moved and so we are in a new precinct and now have a new place to go and vote. Secondly, my husband works crazy hours now and he is the one who figures all this out for me - and he did - he did the research online and even had a google map pulled up - which I looked at this morning before I went out (too bad I didn't print the darn thing out).

So, I got lost and ended up stopped at a local church (another place to vote) to ask for directions to my location. This older woman kept asking for my precinct. I honestly don't know where it is but I know where I need to go to vote and just need to know how to get there BUT she insisted on looking up my precinct acting like I am some sort of idiot for not knowing and therefore cannot possibly know where I need to go to vote. She took my driver's license and spent the next 30 MINUTES looking up my info just to walk back to me and tell me EXACTLY WHAT I ALREADY KNEW. ARRRGGGG!

And she gave TERRIBLE directions. I still ended up getting mixed up because she failed to inform me that there are two elementary schools on the street I was traveling down and that I needed to go to the second and not the first.

And it didn't stop there - oh no. I finally make to the school and then cannot find any directional signs to tell me where to go. So I walk in to the main entrance only be to turned away and sent to the back of the building where I finally found door 5 with signs all over it (not visible from the street - thank you very much).

The actual voting process took me two seconds with no line or anything thank goodness - but it took me a good hour just to find the stupid place.

I am still a little bitter over the whole experience if you cannot tell.

It is mostly my fault though - but really it shouldn't be that hard to hand out some decent directions, to look up where someone needs to go, etc.

Back to the NY Times Polling Place Photo Project - I may go back tonight with my camera to take pics - maybe. :) For now, the picture of me wearing my sticker will have to do.

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Submit your photo by visit their website - http://pollingplaces.nytimes.com/content.cfm/home

4 comments:

tina said...

I am very interested in seeing the outcome of both Indiana and North Carolina today. Tennessee was an easy vote a while ago.

Momma Val said...

That photo looks quite professional, like a sexy voting ad or something. I liked your other post about the name that font game. I am so rusty at my fonts. That's what happens when you leave the graphic design world to be a stay at home mom. Your brain turns into oatmeal. I sent the link to my gd friends.

Electronic Goose said...

Neat photo contest, too bad about the voting experience! I absolutely hate changing voting registration, which I've had to do a bazillion times from as many moves we've made.

Ki said...

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a very nice comment on my blog.

Our small town managed to move the voting location 3 times since we've been here. First it was an elementary school, then the firehouse and now the township municipal building. At every location the people seemed as confused as we were about which precinct we belonged to. As in your situation, it took longer to sort things out than the actual voting which took but a few seconds.