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Diebold, Die!
I voted for the first time in at least four years (and possibly for the first time since 2000). In Oxford, Ohio, on an electronic machine created by Diebold, the bete noire of all manner of voting conspiracists (as I said in reason's presidential poll, I tapped the screen for one Bob Barr). This was my first time with such an apparatus—I grew up in New Jersey, where we voted on steampunk-clanky mechanical machines involving flipped switches and pulled levers and all sorts of weirdly old-fashioned seeming stuff. There was something comforting about having to exert yourself to cast a ballot, though it seemed kind of implausible that anyone was really tabulating whatever the hell was on the inside of the machine (indeed, in the Garden State and New York, stories would always come out weeks after a given election of whole tractor trailers filled with voting machines simply disappearing).
The Diebold electronic screen was not comforting in the least, though it seemed easy and transparent enough to use. There was a paper tape that you could read as the vote was tabulated, etc.
As we wait for the polls to close and the results to come in, I'm curious if Hit & Run readers care much about the technology of voting. And what interesting (or like mine, uninteresting) experiences did you have today?
AP story on machines not malfunctioning, big turnout, and the like.
Warty|11.4.08 @ 9:09PM|#
I drove down to the firehall, waited in line for 90 seconds, and
tapped the part of the screen that said Bob Barr.
What I don't get is, why don't electronic votes get counted
instantaneously? This waiting-all-night business is for the
birds.
EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy|11.4.08 @ 9:12PM|#
Left a mark-n-scan system on the wrong side of the river to come
to an all-electronic-no-paper-trail-machine on the right
side.
::sigh::
Kaiser|11.4.08 @ 9:17PM|#
Not sure what machines they use here in Tennessee. I was not astute enough to look at the type of machine I was using when I went in for early voting. It was easy enough to use but felt a little clunky. It seemed to have a bit of a delay between the press of my finger and showing up on the screen. Other than that all went well. Got my vote in for Barr, then proceeded to vote against incumbents for either a straight 3rd party ticket or in one case I just wrote my name in. The candidate running had no one running against them.
a|11.4.08 @ 9:29PM|#
In college back in the early 1970s, one of my poli sci profs described pulling the lever on a voting machine as "that great ejaculation of power."
joe|11.4.08 @ 9:30PM|#
Scantron ballots in Massachusetts. It's all good.
I like the big, clunky machines, too.
SIV|11.4.08 @ 9:35PM|#
As a standardized testing savant I prefer the optical scan ballots.As an antiquarian I wish I could vote on a lever machine.
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db|11.4.08 @ 9:38PM|#
Clearly the dark, well oiled Republican election stealing
machine is working its evil magic as we speak. Stay on your
guard!
My vote was cast with pen and paper, via US Postal Service
(boo!)--absentee ballot, as my employer is hosting me in another
state today.
db|11.4.08 @ 9:39PM|#
Looking forward to McCain getting spanked by Barr's margin, but my Intrade position in Indiana.REP is doing quite well right now.
|11.4.08 @ 9:44PM|#
I didn't notice the name of the machines being used here in
Jersey City today. I pressed a button, a light went on next to
Barr's name, then I pressed another button to confirm the
vote.
The woman in front of me had trouble figuring out how to use the
machine. And the two women working got into an argument over
whether or not they could reset it if a person didn't use the
machine correctly. Ultimately, one of the women did push some
buttons.
"You're going to screw up the count!!"
"What else are we going do? She didn't do it right?!!"
More buttons were pushed, more arguing.
|11.4.08 @ 9:46PM|#
Today in Manhattan I voted on one of those big clunky machines
that Nick is talking about with the red lever. I have always voted
on one of these things, as I grew up in New Jersey. I was in the
30th District, and as the ancient geezers did the paperwork to
allow me to vote they talked to each other about how the "public
count" was not the same as "the machine count," as if they were
trying to figure out a way to fix it.
I voted, and then my wife. While she voted I listened to the poll
workers at the 31st District table, right next to our 30th District
table. They were having the same sort of conversation as the people
at the 30th; trying to figure out which votes had got lost, or
which had got counted more than once.
|11.4.08 @ 9:46PM|#
Frankly, I'm still surprised people in Las Vegas are willing to put money into animated computer screens that spit up cards in Video Poker, or fruits and bells in computer slots. You'd think they'd be concerned that it would be much easier to rig a computer to never give you a win than to rig a mechanical device. But in fact people put their money into these things with high levels of confidence. So I'm not surprised they don't worry about fake computer voting.
|11.4.08 @ 10:00PM|#
I worked the polls today in Arlington, Virginia, where voters
have a choice between a machine or an optical scan paper ballot.
17% of voters chose the paper ballot; the rest went with the
machine.
(Virginia's Legislature has barred any further purchase of
electronic machines due to the hackability risk; they will be
phased out as they wear out over time.)
|11.4.08 @ 10:14PM|#
My university town uses a scantron (fill in the bubble)
system.
As a relative youngin', this is my favorite way to vote. Every
single standardized test I've ever used was a scantron, so the
"make sure to fully fill in the circle" lecture is second nature
after 24 years.
rhywun|11.4.08 @ 11:16PM|#
I voted in Brooklyn (also for the first time since 2004, and also for Barr--third parties FTW! [I don't really like Barr, but what the hell]). We're still using the same steampunk machines from like 1950.
rhywun|11.4.08 @ 11:21PM|#
PS. The district booth next to mine, another steampunk machine, was seemingly out-of-service while I was standing on line at my machine. But then some guy cranked a lever and it came back on. Then some voter tripped over the electrical cable of my machine, and it turned "off". I was wondering if the votes would get lost?
cunnivore|11.4.08 @ 11:48PM|#
This was my first time voting in the new state, so I had to
present all the ID and stuff. Strangely, there was a poll worker
escorting everybody from the queue to their Diebold machine and
explaining how it worked. She did this for every person in the line
in front of me, but when it was my turn she just pointed to the
machine I was supposed to go to.
I'm not sure if I looked really smart or really scary. The Cthulhu
shirt I was wearing probably didn't help.
cunnivore|11.4.08 @ 11:50PM|#
Admit it guys, you just like the idea of going into a dark little room behind a curtain and yanking a lever.
rhywun|11.5.08 @ 12:34AM|#
you just like the idea of going into a dark little room behind a curtain and yanking a lever
It has a certain visceral appeal, yes.
Robert Goodman|11.5.08 @ 12:41AM|#
I had to hang around (as chairman of inspectors in an election district) for 2 hrs. here in New York City because our machine was one of many around the city whose keys had not been packed in the supplies sent to the polling place. Eventually someone came & jimmied it open for us to do the unofficial canvas, which the Bd. of Elecs. insists on. The official canvas doesn't get started until 8 days later anyway.
rhywun|11.5.08 @ 12:51AM|#
jimmied it open for us
I derive a certain satisfaction out of my state's one-day-only,
last-century voting process. I really don't get the move to "early
voting". Doesn't that just mean all states are eventually going to
agitate for an amendment to move the "real" voting date back? Kinda
like the primaries.
|11.5.08 @ 1:08AM|#
Denver, CO -- The longest ballot ever, on the largest of ballots ever. Two 18-by-36, double-sided heavyweight paper sheets. Connect the arrow with a pencil, stuff them into a metal box.
|11.5.08 @ 4:20AM|#
What's all this with voting machines anyway? In the UK we just put an X in a box on a bit of paper.
|11.5.08 @ 9:58AM|#
Hart E-slates; no touch screen though many still hammer it with
their forefingers after about 5 yrs using 'em in Texas. It's got a
little wheel you spin to highlight your choices and an enter key to
lock it in. Shows a summary page at the end of the ballot so you
can think twice before hitting 'cast ballot' and locking your
choice into the onboard memory and the control box cache. No
network link to a central counting station; poll workers carry the
control boxes with their sealed memory modules back to the counting
station where the cards are stripped out and tallied. There's a lot
of concern over hacking networked systems, so we carry the bits and
pieces here and there. Want to steal an election, forget about
stuffing the box, just get your man on the contractor tech team
prior to election day, he'll be worth his weight in gold.
'Provisional' ballots are an abortion that could only be dreamt up
in HAVA-land, where every improvement creates multiple confusing
forms and procedures at the polls, absolutely insane to let
'unregistered, unable to id themselves, out of district and
incompetent fools state they did register, they do live here, and
we have to let 'em vote, even if just provisionally.
Haven't used a mechanical fraud machine since the '90s but they're
warmly remembered in my antiquarian brain.
Robert Goodman|11.5.08 @ 4:41PM|#
Heh...at one ED (i.e. someone else's machine) at my polling
site, the public counter was said to be off by 9 (I don't know
whether more, or less) compared to the count on the cards made out
by hand for each voter and the number hand written in the book at
the same time. Our ED wound up with a discrepancy of only 1, the
public counter on our machine having the lower number of 436. I
"fixed" that.
I was also hiding under the table the box of cookies given by some
candidate for assembly (or maybe it was senate). They were fresh
& excellent. A couple of boxes must've been detected and were
instead put on a table at the entranceway -- still with the
candidate's name on them and within 100' of the polls.
What's really galling about making us stay 2 hrs. after the polls
closed at 9 PM (and we'd been working since half an hour before
opening at 6 AM) because of that packing error (which apparently
was widespread) was that we phoned in about the problem at 8 AM,
and the rumor flew for hours that the police keys were being
duplicated for an 8 PM delivery, is that the canvas on election
night is strictly for show -- unofficial. The official tally
doesn't even get started until Wed. of the following week. I wanted
to fix it just by making canvas sheets of whole cloth, if you'll
pardon the pun.
And they get so chickenshit about other things too. On the
affidavit ballots (provisionals for people who think they're
registered to vote there even though they're not in the book) I'd
been witnessing their sworn or affirmed statement on the envelope
after they'd made out the ballot and sealed it in
the envelope. Then I was told we had to have them swear to it
before giving them the ballot. That resulted in my
doing so for one lady who then thought about it and decided,
concerned about the secrecy of her vote when the envelope was
opened, to forego voting. We'd also been told not to destroy any
documents, so the solution I was then told to do was to void the
statement on the envelope (which contained no ballot), seal it and
put it with the others, which added one to the count of affidavit
ballots and will probably screw someone up who opens the empty in
the official canvas.
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