As I received my assignment to monitor the November 2, 2004, Presidential Election in the swing state (and ultimately the last stand state) of Ohio as part of the Election Protection Program, my mind was filled with one objective: make every vote count. After witnessing the shaming of our democracy in Florida during the 2000 elections I was determined not to let it happen again.
We chose Ohio because if any place was going to be the Florida of 2004, Ohio was going to be it. While it wasn’t quite Florida 2000, the election did end up hanging on Ohio.
When I awoke at 4:30 a.m. on Election Day, I wasn’t prepared for what I would experience even though I had completed two training sessions. I arrived at 5:30 a.m. at the Election Protection Legal Command Center. I was paired up with a local attorney. We were to rove around six precincts located in African American neighborhoods. As we arrived at the first polling site at 6:30 a.m., lines were already forming. It was then that I knew this would be a very long day. By the time we made it to our second stop we began to see problems.