Monica Torres is a senior work/life reporter for HuffPost who writes about the workplace, career anxieties and general lifestyle topics. She is a 2016 member of Poynter's Diversity in Digital Leadership class. She is based in New York.
It’s Election Day, and for many voters, casting a ballot is not just a simple stroll to their neighborhood polling station.
I just knew it was really important to show up and just do my civic duty and speak for plenty of women who live in Pennsylvania who maybe they don’t feel comfortable voting blue.I represent several things. Being a woman, I’m from a family of immigrants. My mom’s from Puerto Rico, my biological father’s from Haiti, so yeah, I just really wanted to do it. I was at work all day on Monday, and then I told my boss, ‘I’m driving tonight to Pennsylvania from Washington, D.C.
― Betsey, who asked to not share her full name, who drove from Washington, D.C., to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania“I live in Arkansas, but I’m temporarily living in Texas, so I needed to drive to Arkansas to come vote because that’s where I’m registered. That’s my permanent address. Had to wait until I got off work yesterday. By that point, big storms were rolling in, and so the first few hours of my drive were very stressful. I couldn’t see anything with the rain pouring down ...
I started around 11:30 p.m. and I got to Fulton County around a little after 4:30 a.m. and then I stopped to use a bathroom ... I did want to take a nap. I couldn’t for a couple reasons. One was the energy drink just had me awake. But two, I was afraid that I would be so tired, because I’ve been up for almost 24 hours at that point, that I wouldn’t hear an alarm on my phone.
I’m living in Colorado currently, and I tried to remove my registration in Washington and I tried to register in Colorado. However, I couldn’t request an absentee ballot, because it was too close to the election at that time. So I couldn’t vote in Grand Junction where I go to school, so I had to come to Denver to vote in person where my license is registered. I took a six-hour bus ride to be here today to vote. It was a lot. And I don’t like bus rides.
I decided that I was going to fly back to vote for two reasons. Number one: I feel it’s very important. And number two: Quite honestly, the Postal Service in the state has been just absurdly slow in the last couple of years.
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