Inevitably, a slew of anecdotes make the rounds in the days following an election, most of which we're unfortunately sworn to secrecy not to expose. However, we've been given the green light to share the experience of election judge Sue Ringle, who just told us about Troy Aikman's appearance and subsequent reappearance Tuesday afternoon at Highland Park's Fire Department, where he eventually voted in Precinct 1227 after an initial problem.
Sue, take it away.
Troy walks in, goes toward the check-in table and immediately does a 180 and looks at me and says, 'Oh, my gosh. I don't have any identification with me.' He said, 'I bet I need that with me, don't I?' and I went, 'Yeah, you really do.'He was already wet because he had not brought rain gear, so he said, 'How long are ya'll open?' and I said, "Till 7 o'clock." He said, 'OK,' and off he goes.
Well, he comes back within minutes, and he was even wetter, but he had his drivers license and he voted, and as he put his ballot in the counter, I said, 'Well, you're in good company. I turned away Gene and Jerry Jones a few years ago because they're not registered in this precinct.'
They're registered in the very next precinct, and they're supposed to vote over at Bradfield [Elementary School], but all three of them were very nice. They did not give me any flack at all. Troy was just as nice as he could be, but I think he kinda sensed that I was not going to give any breaks to celebrities.
Ringle says she became interested in politics in the early 1990s and is active with the Park Cities Republican Women. She doesn't remember exactly what time Aikman dropped by -- guessing sometime around 1 p.m. -- and is also unsure how long he was gone, suggesting he may have only needed to run back to his car.
"He didn't expect any special treatment, and I wasn't going to give him any," she tells Unfair Park.
And Ringle sticks to the book when it comes to anyone hoping to cast a late vote as well, mentioning that she turned away a voter at 7:04 p.m. because the polls had closed four minutes earlier.
"I'm sure that word's getting out that there's a real hardass election judge over at the fire station, but we actually all oughta be that way," she says. "I'm kinda thinking that's not the case countywide, but I can sleep at night because I treat everyone the same."
