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After 2000 Election, Odessa Voter Takes No Chances

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By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 4, 2008

3:15 p.m.: After what happened in the 2000 presidential election, Carmen Arenas was leaving nothing to chance.

The 36-year-old Realtor says she showed up around 7 a.m at Precinct 526, at Ed Radice Park in Odessa.

After a 50-minute wait, she says poll workers came out to say there was a problem with the optical scanner.

"They said the optical scanner is down and that we could either choose to come back at a later time, or fill out our ballots and put them in a sealed box until they could be scanned in," says Arenas, who chose the former option.

"I opted to leave and come back at a later time," she says. "This race is too close to not do it myself and follow through. Too much to give over to someone else. I wanted to put it in the scanner myself and see it was accepted, after our previous problems."

Arenas says that when she returned at 11 a.m., the lines were shorter, but she still had to wait 90 minutes.

But it was worth it.

"When they made announcement earlier, only four of us left," she says. "A lot of people chose to leave their vote. I don't want to say you can't trust anybody, but still. My confusion is why not have a backup there? Several family members did early voting and had no problems."

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