I have been voting since 1966, but I have never encountered interference in my exercise of that right until this year of 2020. I entered the City of Comer, GA polling station at the fire station as usual to cast a single ballot in a runoff. There were two attendees by the door to my right as I walked in. There were two workers seated in front of monitors at a table. When I presented my photo ID to the first seated one, she presented me with a tablet on whose screen were two “buttons”. One button was for a Democratic runoff. The other was for a Republican runoff. I was given a stylus with a rubbery tip and directed to make a choice on the tablet touchscreen. After I made my choice, a lady who looked like all the other poll workers dashed out of my peripheral vision and announced, to no one in particular, “Lets make sure he knows what he is choosing” or something to that effect. To my complete and unexpected surprise the woman thrust two sample ballots in front of me and, pointing to the Republican one said, “See? There are more choices on this one.” I replied, “Yes, I know that.” Then the seated worker asked me to put my signature on the tablet screen with the same rubbery stylus. I went on through the process, and remarked to the exit staff who took my printed page and scanned it by another machine, that Tom Sawyer famously remarked in Huckleberry Finn, when he and Huck were trying to free their friend Jim from his confinement, that to make any endeavor more fun you should make it as complicated as possible. Not sure if they got the joke, but what happened to me with the process that morning was no joke at all. Jim Baird Comer
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