THE WOODLANDS, Texas — For many Americans, the right to vote is still sacred.
“All I want is to be like everyone else," said Woodlands resident Deveraux Macy. "I’m not. I know that. I’ve lost everything.”
Macy says when her husband took her to cast her ballot last Tuesday morning at the South County Community Center in The Woodlands, she left with the memory of an experience she can’t forget.
“To be dismissed, like I’m nothing, like I don’t matter because I have a brain injury that I didn’t cause," Macy said.
The Texas Election Code allows for those with specific disabilities affecting their mobility to have accommodations when they cast their ballots in person.
“We were parked outside and the police officer came out and wanted to know why we were there, and he was very nice," Macy explained.
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But things took a turn after that.
Macy hasn’t always been disabled.
Almost 15 years ago, she says her kitchen’s gas oven had a leak, which she lived with unknowingly for months.
She says the prolonged exposure caused permanent brain damage and it changed her life.
“I’m homebound, I can’t drive can’t go in any building because I pass out, the noise, the lights, the music, the people, the movement the color," Macy said.
The election machine that was brought to her husband’s car wouldn’t print her ballot.
Then a second machine was brought out, but poll workers couldn’t get that one to work either.
Eventually, Macy says the poll worker told her he would try to print her ballot later from inside the building.
Other than that, her only option would be to vote inside herself.
"[The] third time, an hour and a half, three votes, I finally voted, I was going to pass out, my husband grabbed me," she said.
Montgomery County Elections Administrator Suzie Harvey said a technician was sent to get the problem fixed when her office found out about the problem.
Harvey says the technician learned the machine was working property and the issue was most likely an error by its operator.
She said these are "growing pains" related to learning this year's new machines.
Harvey said she only recalls a report of one other disabled voter having an issue at the South County voting location last Tuesday.
Macy says she needed to speak out about her experience for others who may not have been able to cast their ballots or may run into issues this election cycle.
“I can sit here like everyone else and do nothing," Macy said. "But that’s not who I am.”