Harrowing near-miss in first vote

I turned 18 in September and was extremely excited that my first voting experience would be for this presidential election. I went to my assigned polling place right after school because I heard tales of extremely long lines. When I got there, only two other voters were present. An elderly gentleman pointed to the table where I was supposed to check in. An old man asked me my name so I told him. He then flipped through his book once and then again. I was told that he could not find my name. A teenager next to him then checked the database to see if my name was there. It wasn't. They had to call over a woman to call the election commission and find out what happened. I nervously waited while she called, in hoping the whole time that they would find my name and I could vote. She said they had no record of me. I was devastated. I knew that I had filled out the application. He gave me a card and told me to register in person because I had done so through the mail. I called my parents to break the news. My father called me back at 6 and directed me to a woman who might help. She was stumped. How could I have received a card saying where I was supposed to vote if I was not registered? I then retruned to the polling place and showed the woman the card and my driver's license. I had to fill out an application and then use a provisional ballot. Later, I found out what happened to my registration: I live in Winfield. There is a girl in Glen Ellyn with my name and birth date. When the person was entering the information in the database, they thought that she filled out the application twice so they skipped me. I guess in the end the good thing was my vote counted.

Rebecca Pindel

Winfield