I’m at the Columbia Heights voting center. It’s an absolute disaster. There are hundreds and hundreds of people in line and they’ve already been waiting for hours. This video is just the first third of the line.
Voters at the front of the line have been waiting nearly three hours, and the line has gotten MUCH longer since then. It’s astonishing.
Curfew status at 7 pm, though voters are exempt. Poll workers are telling them police won’t arrest them if they wear an “I voted” sticker.
Curfew status at 7 pm, though voters are exempt. Poll workers are telling them police won’t arrest them if they wear an “I voted” sticker.
So thousands of people are waiting in line to vote across DC, curfew starts in less than an hour, and poll workers are telling people they won’t get arrested if they wear an “I voted” sticker.
That’s cold comfort for many of these voters.
That’s cold comfort for many of these voters.
Here’s the middle third of the line to vote in Columbia Heights.
Here’s the last third of the line to vote in Columbia Heights. (Deleted and reposted due to upload error.)
Voters are wearing masks and trying to social distance. Poll workers are handing out water. But it’s clear this is an absolute disaster. These voters will be waiting for hours and hours past curfew and then they have to try to get home without being stopped by the police.
There’s still a crazy long line at the Van Ness polling place. When curfew hit at 7 pm, everyone in line took a knee. 
Police pulled up to a line outside a polling place and demanded they go home because of curfew. That is unquestionably an illegal order, but also the inevitable consequence of @MayorBowser’s catastrophic management of this election.
Another report of DC police confronting voters waiting in line after curfew, which is not supposed to apply to them.
Yet ANOTHER report of DC police confronting voters—these officers explicitly directed voters in line to go home, a flagrantly illegal directive. This election went horribly wrong. Pretty much a systemwide meltdown.
“The last day that vote centers are open” is also called ELECTION DAY.
This is astonishing—the DC election board is blaming tonight’s meltdown on voters for voting.
This is astonishing—the DC election board is blaming tonight’s meltdown on voters for voting.
And by the way, the reason so many DC residents voted on Election Day was because a huge number of voters didn’t receive their requested mail-in ballots because the city messed up. So, through no fault of their own, they were forced to wait in line for hours at the polls instead.
Damn, @tweetelissa’s demand for an independent audit of the DC Board of Elections is beyond scathing. She points out that the board’s failures may affect the outcome of the Ward 2 primary, which remains way too close to call.
