So, short thread about my #earlyvoting experience in North #Georgia today. I live in Forsyth County, but at the bottom of it, because my address is Alpharetta which is mainly Fulton County. My closest early voting location about about a 35 minute drive to Cumming, GA. 1/n

Cumming is Red state GA. A lot of Forsyth is too. Rural. White. Conservative. I voted at a place called the Coal Mountain Park Community Building. Here’s a photo taken today by the Forsyth County News of my polling place. Well the line to it. The building is beyond the trees. 2/n

The reason this line is so long is inside there were 8 voting machines. So the wait is one thing. But. What you can’t really see from the picture is most people weren’t wearing masks. I vowed to vote in person, early. I wore a mask. I distanced. At times it was challenging. 3/n

The people directly in front of me who talked about the Republicans they were voting for, were not wearing masks. Surely, when we got to the tiny park club house to go inside, they would have to put them on. No. Masks are not required inside polling places in Cumming. 4/n

Poll workers are required to wear masks. Voters are not. At several intervals I had to tell the poll workers, nicely, when they asked me to step up, that I was fine. I also declined the clipboard that was offered to me with the paper to fill out my registration information. 5/n

The clipboards were being wiped down with non-disposable cloths, so a couple of cloths wiped down the same clipboards over and over. Inside the polling place the same door served as entrance and exit, so people leaving were within less than a foot of those coming in. 6/n

There was sanitizer on each table, and some was squirted into my hand when my printed ballot was scanned in, and I got my sticker. All the poll workers were very nice. I’m glad I did it. But I this was easily the most unnerving, kind of upsetting thing I’ve done since March. 7/n

I say this as a front line worker who works with COVID positive patients nearly every day. In fact when I was asked to step up, by a nice man in a camouflage mask, I mentioned I was a nurse who spent yesterday with folks with COVID and it was better if I stayed further away. 8/n

So. If you’re going to vote early in person (in an area where you think people won’t wear masks) I would wear an N95 if you can. I didn’t, just a cloth mask. I assumed people would be required to wear them, or they would be given to those without. Be prepared to wait. 9/n

Please #Vote . If you’re high risk, I’d drop my absentee ballot off. If you want to go in person be aware, be careful. Am I sorry I went? No. Was it what I expected? No. Did I get emotional about it for - all sorts of reasons? I did. Was I proud to help #TurnGeorgiaBlue? So much.