Monika’s Early Voting Experience In Pictures

Early voting has begun in El Paso, TX and this is how my experience went in pictures.

I’ve been counting the days until early voting. I didn’t want to wait until the last minute and decided long ago that I would vote on the first day of early voting.

On Tuesday morning around 9:45 a.m. I rolled up to Sunland Park Mall and noticed a line of about 20 people standing outside and about 50 vehicles in line to vote via curbside.

I opted to go inside and stood in line.

Timeline:

9:45 a.m. - Getting in line at the entrance of the mall.

9:55 a.m. - 10 min later, I’m inside the mall.

Once inside, I notice there is a hand sanitizing station up against the wall and everyone is doing a good job of keeping 6 ft. apart.

10:30 a.m. - The line is snaking around The Greenery restaurant, the brow salon, and over across the front of the shoe repair, and nail salon.

The shoe repair shop was even offering a free shoe shine while voters wait.

10:45 a.m. – By now, it's evident that there are more people ahead of me.

11 a.m. - Made it to the front of the nail salon and we can finally see the voter balloon sign.

11:20 a.m. – I spot the voter entrance area.

Upon entering, there is a hand sanitizing station where you are handed a little bag filled with alcohol wipes, a Q-tip, and a finger condom.

At this point, I couldn’t take pictures but once inside there were about 5 to 6 volunteers taking voter information and directing them to one of the eight voter stations.

My whole 2.5-hour early voter experience was actually very pleasant – fellow voters who were standing in line with me were very friendly, we chatted, joked, and listened to music while we all waited in line.

Early voting felt very much like I was in line waiting to buy concert tickets – but instead of scoring tickets, I got to cast my vote, and it was so worth it.

Early voting continues through October 30, 2020 – To find the nearest voting station Click HERE