It’s not that I’m angry or upset about the outcome of yesterday’s election, what gets me upset is the way the voting is now being done.
Last year when I went to vote, I was enclosed in a big machine with lots of names and levers. I would push down the lever of the person I wanted to vote for and when I was finished, I would pull the bar to open the curtain. Even though the machines were old fashioned, I got the sense that my vote was important. The bar that I pulled was heavy and the machine made a distinctive noise as the vote was recorded and the curtain flew open.
When I went to the school to vote yesterday, I signed in and watched as the volunteer wrote down my number, address and name on a pad of paper under about 10 other people. Then, I was handed an over sized paper with positions, names and little round circles. Was I voting or taking a quiz?
They put the paper in a manilla folder that was marked “privacy screen.” Half of the paper was sticking out of the folder, I mean, privacy screen. What a joke!
I went to a table where there was a blue metal divider, I mean, another privacy screen. I put my paper down on the table and the blue privacy screen seemed to block whatever light was in the room. I started to fill in my little circles but it was very hard to see, due to the small size of the print and the lack of light.
I can’t believe that this is what we have to do to vote! My mind flashed back to the US election in 2000 when there was discrepency in the ballot between Bush vs. Gore. It came down to Florida and all I kept thinking about were these little tiny holes that needed to be filled in so carefully. But did I do them carefully enough? Did the people in Florida fill in the holes carefully?
After I filled in my holes, I was told to put my document in face up on the scanner. I fed the sheet in and I got a message congratulating me on voting.
I walked out of the gymnasium feeling that everyone in the room knew who I voted for. I also walked away thinking, this is 2010, why aren’t we using computers for the data entry and calculations of results?
Hilary,
I agree with you that the ballot was not well designed for readability, and that the privacy folders were mismatched to the size of the ballot.
However, I can be somewhat illuminating as to why it is paper, not clicking on a screen. Insuring the integrity of elections requires a paper record. Unfortunately, pure electronic voting does not leave a physical record of votes cast. With scanning, if there is a later dispute about the ballots, the actual ballots can be reviewed. If you are interested, there have been several extensive articles on issues surrounding pure electronic voting, they do not make pleasant reading.
Thanks for your comments Bob. There has got to be a better way to do this….
we have to connect two lines here in FL. I feel better having a paper trail so I'm glad to vote like this
I don't like the new system. The ballots leave much to be desired. With all of the circles that needed to be completed, I'm surprised I didn't walk away cross-eyed from making sure I filled in the appropriate number of circles in the corresponding categories. Perhaps grayscale should be incorporated to separate the categories.
Why cant it be a combination of both? Have a touch screen that issues two paper receipts, one for the voter which he can check and keep before putting the other one into a box if paper needs to be used for a recount. If my ATM can process millions of transactions each day, I don't see why touch screens with paper receipts can't be used and still maintain the integrity of the election.
Agree with your comments. Does seems as if the voting process went more smoothly this time around, compared to just a few months ago during the primary. I hope the next election will see even more improvements in the process.