Oprah Winfrey spoke on her live panel on Friday about voting early in Chicago, Illinois, where she lives. She said she went to the polls early and waited in line because she has her live show and didn’t want to be late. Oprah waited for over an hour, during which she joked that she heard some ladies behind her saying “That’s Oprah, you know who she’s voting for.” Once she voted, Oprah said she was scared and shaking to discover that her vote for president hadn’t been registered by the machine when she went back to check. Luckily she was able to fix it though and record her vote.
“I was worried that there’s gonna be such long lines, and I have a live show,” Winfrey said, justifying her decision to vote early.
She waited 72 minutes to vote, only to have a near-meltdown in the booth.
“When I voted yesterday electronically, the first vote that you vote for on the ballot is the presidential candidate. It was my first time doing electronic, so I didn’t mark the X strong enough, or I held down too long. Because then when I went back to check it, it had not recorded my presidential vote,” she said.
She then simulated her meltdown, shaking and breathing heavily while stuttering out the words, “It didn’t record my presidential vote.”
[From The Huffington Post]
She reminded us to “Make sure you double check” if your vote was recorded on an electronic voting machine.
If you have any problems at the polling booth at all – including your right to vote being challenged or irregularities with the voting equipment – you can text message and twitter your story to NPR (National Public Radio) which is monitoring the elections and reporting on issues. Almost none of us has the ability to reach a national audience like Oprah, but working together and using technology we can make sure that our stories are heard.
The Huffington Post has the video of Oprah talking about her voting experience.
Photos are of Oprah at Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday dinner in London on 6/25/08. Credit: Solarpix / PR Photos
Wow, I bet there’s going to be a lot of these sort of electronic problems tomorrow. If Oprah had problems, can you imagine in places like Florida and Ohio where there’s notoriously problems with ballots? I can smell recounts galore Wednesday morning!
If this means people will be more vigilant when they’re voting, good for Oprah for making her own experience public.
We Ohioans are voting early!!! Record numbers are turning out! So far we’ve had no issues and I’m glad I early voted! But as always there is trickery in our voting system.
Now she knows how we felt in Florida in 2000 when they threw out the absentee ballots.
I made every effort. I vote absentee as I’m gone from home from 6:45 to 6:45, which doesn’t leave much time to get to the polls which are open 7:00 to 7:00. This year, instead of mailing it, I hand delivered it to the office of the Supervisor of Elections. Where, for all I know, they laughed when I walked out the door and threw it in the trash. But I tried.
Mel, you’re right, I live in Ohio also. You can vote early and often.
I have been a resident for 13 years and have never been asked for ID in any form to vote. We vote on touch screens in my county.
I always show my voter registration card and my driver’s. And my county has touchscreens with no paper record.
*shiver*
CB, CNN and MSNBC also have phone numbers people can call and give election-problem info.
On an equally-serious note; does Oprah and Sarah Palin share a make-up artist? That orange war-paint slathered all over her physog is awful.
Fingers crossed that there will be no serious irregularities tomorrow, and may be best team win etc etc 😉
Kaiser-
That sucks. Our touchscreen units have a paper record of voting done. There are a couple of records to make sure they all match (digital and paper). Most people voting in my precinct don’t go with the touchscreen though. The optical scan unit (accepts the traditional paper ballot) is by far more popular.
Doesn’t a meltdown and shaking and scared seem like a really over exaggerated reaction? I know she’s trying to get the point across about the touchscreens and votes not being recorded but the way she is describing it seems like it was a life or death thing.
The next 48 hours should be extremely interesting.
It’s always a good idea to check one’s vote. After the FL debacle years ago, that should be obvious.
I absentee voted, and used a pen. For years, no one had problems with chads. Electronic voting scares me. Gee thanks Florida.