Election Day!

[DGoddess]

I went and voted yesterday evening after I finished up at work.

In our area, we have the option of Early Voting, which had started about 2 weeks ago and ended last Saturday at 5 p.m. available at select locations.

But, I like going to my regular polling place and I get to see a couple of old family friends who participate with the polling at every election and have done this for years.

So, my brother and I were dropped off right before 5 to go cast our votes while Mom ran to the drugstore to pick up one of her meds. There was no line so we were able to walk right up, give our names and they took the scan labels and attached them to the forms for us to sign and take with us to the machines.

I was done in less than 5 minutes after Becky gave me a quick rundown of how the machines worked (seems as if every other election they change the machines and we all have to learn new ones) and I set about casting my ballot.

My brother, OTOH, had some difficulty with the machine he was using (we have touchpad type machines) so one of the other officials went over to help him with it, as once we are done with our voting we have to leave the roped off area. I stood on the far side of the room and was reading the poster that had the voting information on it while he was finishing up with his ballot, then we waited for a bit before Mom came back (she had already rode up there earlier in the day before the rain started in her chair and voted.) We noticed a few people trickling in and out while we waited, but there was no big rush of people.

All in all, a quick painless experience.

[crazylegs]

A lot of people mention machines and touchpads, I'm curious, why the change from paper and pencil (as we still use)?

[katie kaboom]

A lot of people mention machines and touchpads, I'm curious, why the change from paper and pencil (as we still use)?

Cause that was too complicated for stupid people? Who knows

[smileyeagle1021]

A lot of people mention machines and touchpads, I'm curious, why the change from paper and pencil (as we still use)?

speed... it's quicker to count electronic votes and only have the paper as a back up in case there is any irregularities or technical problems... that's how they were able to declare Mr. Obama president elect less than an hour after most polls closed.

[Boozy]

Canada still uses paper ballots, but we have about a tenth as many voters as the US. The UK probably has about a third as many.

An estimated 130 million ballots were cast in the US on Tuesday. Paper isn't quite as feasible in that kind of situation.

[smileyeagle1021]

An estimated 130 million ballots were cast in the US on Tuesday. Paper isn't quite as feasible in that kind of situation.

yeah... even using scantron forms would take multiple times as long as electronic... and do you really want to have the election being recorded by a form that will misread if the pencil mark smudges while being transported from location to location (I've actually twice had to have tests regraded due to smudge marks when the test was being taken from the classroom to the scantron machine).

[Arcade Man D]

Wow. We *still* use the old lever machines here. Mostly because they work well, are easy to read, and leave a paper trail.

[smileyeagle1021]

Wow. We *still* use the old lever machines here. Mostly because they work well, are easy to read, and leave a paper trail.

the electronic voting leaves a paper trail too... every ballot is printed out for voter verification before the ballot is submitted.

[Slytovhand]

So, Greenday, did you remember to vote??

[SimplyAnother]

the electronic voting leaves a paper trail too... every ballot is printed out for voter verification before the ballot is submitted.

I realize that this thread was last posted to a couple of days ago...

that said..

The electronic voting machines used by my city (and many cities) do NOT have a paper printout.

It's go in the booth, look at white screen thing, press box beside candidate of your choice, box lights up. Once you've done that, you press the big "VOTE" button, there is a DING. And that's it. No paper printout.

The only paper involved would be the sticker that the election official gives out.

[smileyeagle1021]

simply another, I'm kind of surprised by that... I thought it was going to be federally required for a paper print out... at least both Nevada and Utah require paper print out and many others do too... I'd have thought with that even if it wasn't federally required that enough states required it that the companies that make the machines wouldn't bother making a machine without paper printout because it wouldn't save enough to be worthwhile when considering the cost of running two assembly lines.

[Pedersen]

Ah, smileyagle, I wish you were correct. However, here's the way it actually works: Those electronic voting machines are, essentially, computers. They use off the shelf components, off the shelf operating systems, and the only genuinely custom thing is the cabinet containing them. The assembly line consists of "Put stuff in the cabinet in this order."

As a result, adding in a printer genuinely does up the price, by the cost of the printer (let's be nice and assume $50 per printer), the cost of someone putting it in (let's assume the cost to the company for that assembly is only $10), the added shipping cost (to cover the weight), and then the running costs for ink, paper, and maintenance (and as any IT person will tell you, printers are the absolute worst for maintenance, always breaking down in new and creative ways).

Printers are a serious dollar suck. Multiply that by the number of voting machines that have to be purchased, and the additional cost of getting and maintaining the printers meant that localities didn't want to put out the extra.

Tech boards have been screaming about the insecurities of paperless voting machines for a long time. It's only now that people are starting to listen, though.