Elizabeth Mathewson describes herself as “one of those people who’d vote if there was a dog catcher election.” So when she was suddenly hospitalized on Long Island just before the election and too late to get an absentee ballot, she went on a mission.
She called the Nassau County Board of Elections, but couldn’t get through because of storm-damaged lines. She called U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Kirstin Gillibrand, whose offices referred her to the non-working numbers at the Board of Elections. She called and left messages that weren’t returned from political committees. She tried tweeting, and that didn’t work. She even called the White House, which passed her back to the same local officials she couldn’t reach.
