Posted by Geegee on October 28, 2008, at 12:07:11
In reply to Re: Well, I voted!, posted by caraher on October 28, 2008, at 0:02:06
> > I'm in Washington and in this county we can only vote by mail.
>
> Well, the good news is that you don't have to worry about the integrity of touch-screen voting machines. Assuming the mail gets delivered there is a paper trail; too many of us are forced to rely on the honesty of proprietary software run on insecure computer systems to have our votes registered.
>
> I'll take that over the camaraderie many Ohioans endured in 2004, waiting in line for hours in the rain because they had the misfortune to vote in precincts supplied with insufficient numbers of voting machines (in a pattern that was far from neutral with respect to the prospects of the major parties).
In 2004 my precinct was still using punch cards. Didn't know to look for chads then. (That word is like nails on chalkboard to me.) In 2006 didn't use the touchscreens. We had the opti-scans instead. We voted first thing in the a.m. when the polls opened, and the poll workers were not able to get the scanning machine running then. I was aware that there was a specific procedure for what to do with ballots that couldn't be scanned as they were cast, but the poll worker just sort of half-folded it and put it in a manilla envelope on the side of the machine. When I asked when they would be scanned in--after the polls closed? Once the machine was running? In between other voters? etc., the worker couldn't tell me. I am not certain my vote was counted in 2006.Now when I lived for a few years in rural Michigan, we got to use the old booths with the levers and such. That was fun! :)
gg
poster:Geegee
thread:859438
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20081002/msgs/859608.html