Voting 4 Bernie In NC

Today, for the first time in my life, I got to vote in an election. On top of voting for some local democrats for NC, I got to vote for Bernie Sanders for President of the United States over Hillary Clinton. I would like to tell you my sad story about the NC Primary.

I went  to vote around 1 PM EST with a friend of mine, we went, the lines weren't too bad at this time, we had to show our IDs, and then for some reason tell them our address.

While I was standing there waiting in line, I watched several people get turned away, either because they weren't allowed to vote at that polling place or because they didn't have proper ID, or because they just didn't register by February 19th.

Either way, my friend and I both voted for Bernie and went on with our day.

Later, I decided to take two more of my friends to the polling place so they could vote at around 5 EST. Both were turned away because one wasn't registered and the other was registered to vote in a polling place nearly two hours away.

At this time the line was also much longer, literally people were waiting on the stairwell to the second floor to vote. Now that there were more people, as I waited to later see both my friends, guaranteed Bernie voters, get turned away, I saw a very large amount of people get turned away as well.

A lot of these people were young college students like myself, many of color, who just simply didn't know or fully understand the harsh voting laws in North Carolina that are designed to restrict voters.

My college, UNCG, from what I have seen, is a very big Bernie school, and I honestly believe, that the amount of people that got turned away at the polls today across the state most likely impacted Bernie's numbers anywhere from 3-6%. When I'm waiting in line and approximately 7 out of 10 voters get turned away, it is literally disheartening.

I later got in touch with one of my friends who lived near Raleigh, and he told me how he went back home and went to vote in the same location his parents did, only to find out he had to rush back down to his college, at least a 30-40 minute drive at around 6 EST just so he could vote for Bernie. Granted he did get there in time to vote, but many people wouldn't have time and some people are often surprisingly far from their polling place, especially college students who live in more than one place in the state often.

North Carolina has to change their voting laws, and even though I'm not a lawyer, I wouldn't be surprised if people were illegally turned around.