This year I decided to vote in the Republican caucuses. Because I’d last voted as a Democrat, I went to the town hall in Old Orchard Beach well before the Feb. 20 deadline to change parties to vote in a caucus. I filled out my voter registration card and gave it to Jeffrey Thompson, a deputy town clerk.

At the Republican caucus last Saturday, after waiting to register for 30 minutes, I was told by the town clerk, Kim McLaughlin, that they didn’t have any record of my registering and that I couldn’t vote because I was registered as a Democrat!

They called Jeffrey Thompson, who had no recollection of me. John Leighton, another deputy town clerk, shuffled through an assortment of papers from other voters who had registered or changed party to vote. He said he’d just found them on his desk that morning – Thompson had placed them there.

This is how democracy works? Go to the town hall and hope that someone files your voter registration card in a pile on someone’s desk? This is what some of the highest property taxes in the state of Maine pay for? A pile on a desk and being forced to vote via contested ballot.

Thomas Falby

Ocean Park