Family votes together, except when they don’t
Voting is a family affair for Susan, Chip and Wallace Alvin. They may not agree when it comes to politics, they agree it’s important to vote.
They needed less than five minutes to vote at Rothwell Baptist Church.
“We still like each other even though we probably didn’t vote for the same people,” Susan Avin said, adding that politics is a topic of conversation the family avoids.
“Hey, I voted for a couple of Democrats,” Chip said.
“Probably not the one I wanted you to though,” Susan said.
“No, baby, I did not,” Chip said with a laugh.
“And that’s OK,” Susan said.
Faithful to the process, hopeful for meaning
Savion Morant said he had to cast a provisional ballot because he recently moved and showed up to vote at the wrong polling place.
“I think that was my biggest fear, that it was just going to take a lot of time,” he said. “I didn’t have to wait, I just walked right in. … It went better than I expected. I guess they had it down to a system in there.”
Asked if he had confidence in the process, Moran said, “For local offices, yeah. Presidential offices… I won’t say that my vote doesn’t matter, but kind of. That’s how I feel.”
Looking for her winner
Mary Wood said voting this year at Windsor Forest Baptist was “like always, very simple.”
“I’m just praying to God Trump wins. That’s all I can tell you,” the 80-year-old said.
“The only thing I have against Trump, love him to death, is his mouth. He doesn’t know how to control it. … I feel lots better off in my life since he’s been in office and he’s had to fight every day. If he could have went in just like any other president and did his job, Lord only knows what kind of shape we’d be in today. But he’s had to fight.”
“I think if he gets in, and pray to God he does, we’re already seen the difference but we’ll see lots more.”
Finding her duty as a poll watcher
Jill Prince lives in Tennessee but drove down to the coast to volunteer as a poll watcher for Georgia Democrats. She had been staked out at the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens since 6 a.m. Tuesday.
“I thought Georgia was a state it was important to be involved in because there’s not much I can do in Tennessee,” she said. “I have a place in Atlanta, so I saw some of the shenanigans that went down last election (2018) and just thought if I can be of service somewhere (Georgia) sounds like a good place to do it.”
First-time voters exercise their rights
Tom Ireland and Mila Ortiz voted at JF Gregory Park in Richmond Hill. It’s both of their first times voting.
Ireland, from England, recently got his U.S. citizenship.
Asked what he thought about the process, he said, “it’s interesting. I don’t fully understand it. … It’s a pretty wild experience.”
Ireland said he does not fully understand the Electoral College and its role in the election of a president.
“I would like to know more about the Electoral College thing,” he said. “It seems the most bizarre setup.”
“I probably should have done more research. I thought it was just the president that you’re voting for. I didn’t realize it was going to be all kinds of other stuff as well.”
The two had expected to wait in line but were pleasantly surprised there was no wait.
