PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. — Paula Greene told WUSA9 she’s been a registered voter for nearly five decades and never misses an election, so Tuesday was a first.
“Voting means the world to me. My ancestors went through a lot to vote," said Greene.
On Tuesday, Greene went to cast her vote at her normal polling place, Riverdale Elementary School.
“When I arrived, they asked for my name, Paula Greene, and they said, 'well we can’t find you in the system,'" she said.
So, Greene said she handed over her driver’s license, which polling staffed scanned.
"That didn’t work so they said, 'do you have something with your address on it besides the ID?' I said yes, so I gave them my Verizon bill. They looked, they said 'yeah, that’s where you live,'" said Greene.
But staff still couldn’t locate Greene as a registered voter, so they called for help.
"The gentleman called the Board of Elections, the phone was busy, and he said, 'I don’t know why it’s busy'. Then they said let’s call our direct contact person," said Greene. "That phone just rang and rang and rang.”
Greene went home to try and find her registration card that was sent to her months earlier but couldn’t.
"I went back to the polling place. I said, 'let’s do whatever we have to do because I want to vote.' The chief judge said, 'we can put you in here, but your vote might get kicked out because if you’re already in the system and we put you in again, you’re going to be in there twice, so they’re just going to kick it out,'" explained Greene.
Then, she said she filled out and signed a provisional ballot.
“At the end, the young lady gave me a sheet of paper to sign which I signed and dated and then she said print your name here. I should’ve been reading the whole paper, but I was rushing because they were packing up to go because it was almost 8 p.m.," said Greene. "At the part where it says print your name, right there in the fine print it says you are verifying that the above person is deceased, and I said wait a minute.”
She said the experience Tuesday left her feeling disappointed, confused and frustrated.
"I talked to the polling person and said, 'I’m not deceased, I shouldn’t sign this', and she said, 'is that what it says?' I said yes and she said 'okay, give me that back. Don’t print your name there', but I had already signed it," said Greene.
She said she hopes this is sorted out before the November election.
"I would just like to get to the bottom of what happened and then I would like to see if anyone else had to go through what I had to go through at other polling places, because this is a serious election coming up in November and I would hope everyone who wants to vote can vote," said Greene.
We reached out to the Prince George's Election Board several times since Thursday for an interview about Greene’s complaints, but haven't heard back.
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