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Determined to vote: Woman documents difficulty casting ballot in the city of Milwaukee

Posted at 10:37 PM, Apr 09, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-09 23:37:30-04

MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee woman was persistent to vote Tuesday despite being told she was at the wrong polling site not once, but twice.

Abra Fortson and her husband set out early election Tuesday. Arriving at Washington high school at 4, they were prepared for the long lines, but when they got to the front of the line, Fortson said she was confused by the poll worker's response.

"He said you need to be at Riverside High School," recalls Fortson, "No, we did the research. There must be a mistake... what they are telling me on the inside its changed."

After already waiting for 2 hours, the couple had a decision to make.

"My husband just said go to Riverside, so we don't miss this. The line has to be just as long."

Sure enough, they were met with a long line of cars. Abra documented her whole experience on Facebook.

"The next time I was able to give someone my ID and information was 8:28 p.m."

The poll worker returned without a ballot, and the couple knew something was wrong.

"He told me you need to be at Washington High School."

This confusion had pushed Abra to the edge, but she continued to advocate for herself, and finally, the chief inspector allowed them to vote on the only machine able to pull up her ballot.

"They gave me their word that they would take it to Washington and feed it into the machine.

And while she was able to cast her vote, she wonders how many other people experienced the same thing and gave up.

"My concern was for the people who may not have the patience, the ability the tolerance for so many obstacles especially with the state we are in with COVID-19 crisis,"

TMJ4 News reached out to the Milwaukee election commission for answers. Neil Albrecht says he is aware of Abra's issue and looking into the matter.

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