I wasn’t feeling well this morning, so I called in sick to work. Later in the afternoon, I was feeling a little better, and I decided I would go down to the courthouse and register to vote in the upcoming municipal election. My wife and I went down there, but the woman in the county clerk’s office told me that I couldn’t register today, and that I would have to wait ’til next week, because all registration cards were due 20 days before the election (which didn’t make a bit of sense to me). I had read on the Utah State Elections Office website that you could register to vote in person at least seven days before any election, but only mail-in cards were due at least 20 days before the election. I explained this to the woman, but she told me I was wrong and that I couldn’t register to vote today. I got really pissed off and left after spewing forth a little profanity, then I went straight home and called the State Elections Office. I told them what had happened, and they confirmed that their website was indeed correct, and that the Carbon County clerk’s office was breaking the law by turning people away who wanted to register to vote. She said she’d make a few phone calls and get back to me.
About 20 minutes later, she called back. She had called the clerk’s office and explained the law to them, but the secretary there still insisted that they had always done things that way and would continue to do so. Luckily, the county clerk, Robert Pero, just happened to be in Salt Lake today in the same office building as the Elections Office, so the woman talked to him personally and explained the situation to him. He agreed that they should never have turned me or anybody else away for any reason. I had appeared in person to register and should have been allowed to do so. So Robert said that he’d have a talk with everyone in his office tomorrow and that I could come down then and register.
It kinda sucks having to tattle on people who don’t know how to do their jobs, but when it’s something as important as my right to vote, then I don’t care what I have to do. I just really hope that bitch that turned me away gets in some kind of trouble.