I went to vote at my new polling place last night. It was to be the first time I'd voted using the new electronic system, as opposed to the old levers, and I was excited! Yay, technology!
So imagine my surprise when I signed in and the guy handed me a piece of paper.
"Um ... paper?", I said. "What ... is this?"
"It's your ballot!", the guy explained. "Take it over to a privacy booth, fill it out with one of the pens provided, then take it to the scanner and enter it face up!"
Paper? Pens? Little circles to fill in, like on the old multiple-choice tests in high school?
I think we're going backward. I want my levers back.
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7 comments:
I have no problem with the paper ballots. You can't hack paper ballots. If there needs to be a recount, there's no chance of hanging chads or half punched holes - either that circle is marked or it ain't.
Here's a question - what's to stop a poll worker from waiting till the end of the day, signing the names of people who didn't show, and filling out and scanning a bunch of ballots?
I guess they could do that electronically, too. And they could have done it with the old lever system. How do we know that they don't?
Because if they do and they get busted, it's a huge Federal crime. Also, you would have to get half a dozen people or more to go in on it together but not tell anyone later.
At my old polling place, there was a little old lady volunteer who used to tell everybody how to vote. "Vote for *insert name here*", she'd whisper as she walked you to the booth. I wonder if she ever got turned in for it.
She should have. I would have.
At my mom's polling place, there's a polling person (been there since I was living at home) who heckles Democratic voters in the primary and only reluctantly gives them a ballot (and then only after he tells them that they are stupid and need their head examined). It's a heavily Republican county, so he's been reported a thousand times and nothing has been done. He'll die at some point and then that problem will be resolved.
I'm surprised that guy hasn't received a beat-down after the polls closed. I can just picture a mob of angry voters waiting for him outside the polling place.
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