A day late for Halloween, but scary enough that I thought it was worth posting anyway.



*AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!*

That was the best UI they could come up with? Come on.

It looks like you've accidentally voted for a Democrat. Would you like to change your vote to Bush?

There's just no excuse for [censored] like that. The self checkin's in airports these days are a good example for them to look at. GRRR... bad user interface is so angering.

I couldn't believe it. At my polling place this morning, when you select a candidate, it turns red and puts a huge red X next to it. Basically exactly the opposite feedback for a user. My immediate reaction was "oh crap -- is this thing somehow backwards from what I'm thinking??". Come on, people, this is NOT that hard of a UI to design. Would a big green check mark kill you?

Anyway, I called my local election board and complained. Interestingly they had representatives from the voting machine company there when I called, so hopefully my gripe got passed along.

And last but not least, have a look at the question (this is actually what appears in the booth) for a new constitutional amendment:
Shall Section 6 of Article II of the Constitution of Virginia be amended to provide that members of the United States House of Representatives, Virginia Senate, and House of Delegates who are serving in the year following a new United States Census, when decennial redistricting is required, shall complete their terms of office and continue to represent the district from which they were elected for that term of office and that any vacancy during the term shall be filled from the same district that elected the member whose term is being filled?

That took me 3 read-throughs to understand what in the world they're asking. This is ridiculous. I have a constitutional amendment too -- it says "You shouldn't be allowed to write sentences that are 7 lines long and require a Juris Doctor to understand if you want regular people to interpret and vote on them."

Well, in reality, it's just a summary. The entire amendment is probably a lot longer and clearer through being more well fleshed-out. After all, it's not like they provide you with a full platform for each of the office candidates. Maybe they should.

"Congressional gerrymandering will only take effect the next time the affected seat is up for regular electiion at the end of the current full term of office."

Yeah, I've spent all morning researching the non-partisan votes on my ballot. It'd be nice if it were easier to find out what they were.

And, you know, I feel guilty about voting a straight-party ticket, but while Democrats sometimes don't match my views, Republicans never do. I suppose I could vote libertarian in some races, but I don't agree with Libertarians much more than Republicans. I agree with libertarians not infrequently, though.

I'm so glad my state uses simple fill-in-bubble optical scan systems. Nothing wrong with simple technology

Strange, my electronic ballot looked nothing like that image. It was sufficiently simple and attractive. I got through it in about 10 seconds.

Nothing strange about that. Each county/state seems to be free to use whatever electronic machines they want. You must be in an area that has ones with a good UI. I just hope that UI translates to an error-free voting experience, unlike the woman from West Palm beach who was on CNN. She voted Kerry and state Democrats, and when she got to the review screen (after the vote was already cast) it showed Bush and state Republicans. Just like the funny Diebold video (minus the shrinking Kerry button, I'd assume.) She called an attorney and they allegedly removed the faulty votes and let her re-vote.

I had an electronic voting experience. I'm in MD, using a Diebold machine with no paper trail. Apparently, according to MD state law and our elections person, we are only allowed to use federally approved voting equipment and there is no federally approved e-voting printer.

It was a very straightforward ballot, albeit using Xs rather than checks (I'm color blind, and so can't comment on the colors).

When I was finished, I was presented with a summary page which was concise, and I had a very clear opportunity to either modify my selections or cast them, no attorneys needed.

Now whether there will be any shenanigans between my casting and the counting, I can't say.

-jk

I vote on paper with a marksense system and I still feel nervous. There's some sort of automated reader and I have no idea if it's doing its job properly. It'd be nice if it'd print me out a receipt or something.

That automated reader is actually a big win. If you accidentally overvote (e.g., fill in the bubble for Bush and Kerry), then it will reject it and shove it back out at you. Likewise, it will detect if the paper is too thick, making it harder to stuff the ballot box.

Sure, the tallies are kept inside the machine, and some of the older ones don't seem to be terribly reliable. But, the original piece of paper that you filled out will remain, no matter how it's mistabulated. If something goes wrong, they've got your original paper to go back to and recount, either electronically or manually. In short, a precinct-based optical scanner is the best voting technology we currently have.

I know. I'd just like a confirmation.

Greetings!

It'd be nice if it'd print me out a receipt or something.

I do not know why, but that struck me as amusing. Maybe too many Circuit City / Best Buy stories. I can almost visualize returning to the polling place in the next few weeks... "Hi, I would like to return the president-elect. He is defective. I have my receipt right here..."

LOL

It's the lack of a paper trail that worries people (or at least in MD). The bubbles, the punched ballots - these are all items that you can recount at some level (albeit it with over-votes and hanging chads). The Diebold machine (without paper trail) leaves no way to recount the original votes.

-jk

Yeah, but if they miscount by, say, 5%, who's gonna know to start a recount to begin with?

I don't need for it to have my name on it or anything. I just want to see that the machine saw the same thing I intended to mark. The fact that it spits it out directly after I put in my ballot (and, hopefully, that the candidates shown match the ones I picked) is enough. After that, it'd be completely disposable, and if it's unidentifiable and disposable, then it can't be used to prove who I voted for.

Hmm. I suppose I could have had the coercer require me to vote in an odd manner such that it was statistically unlikely for me to be able to find the exact match in the trashcan. So each vote could be on a separate piece of paper.

Or you could just have a private display with no physical receipt, but just a double-check.

I must admit, I am rather pleased to be reading in the headlines about "long lines" at the polls. It is good to see people voting.

Quote:
"Hi, I would like to return the president-elect. He is defective. I have my receipt right here..."

You owe me a monitor and a can of ginger ale.

I just voted, and I’m really glad they didn't replace my districts voting machines with the e-machines. The ones at my local voting place were the really old, huge metal boxes that you stand inside of, and toggle levers and pull a huge handle.

Very simple, with a paper trail, no computers involved at all. I really wish each state used the same equipment. It’s really scary each and every state is allowed to pick and choose which corrupt voting machine they want to use. In my opinion computers shouldn’t be trusted with counting votes, ok well maybe programmers shouldn’t be trusted writing the software that counts the votes.

How is this for an absentee ballot...

Ok, I had to ask. What is wrong with a simple voting paper and a pen. It seems to work over here

Happy Birthday. I hope you get the President of your choice...


(as long as it's Kerry. )

I've mysteriously disappeared from the registered voter list, even though I've been registered to vote at that address for years. Me,and a few other people.

Did you get to vote?

Yeah, paper ballot, like they'll actually count it. So I wrote in for Larry Flint. I live in NY, it's not like it's gonna change anything.

Did you spell it right on the ballot?

What's wrong with the lever machine. There's a label with each candidate's name and a lever below it. You flip the lever to select the candidate. Simple. Even better, if you screw up, you flip the lever back, since nothing takes effect until you open the curtain with the big lever, instead of having to ask for a new ballot.

Quote:
What's wrong with the lever machine. There's a label with each candidate's name and a lever below it. You flip the lever to select the candidate. Simple. Even better, if you screw up, you flip the lever back, since nothing takes effect until you open the curtain with the big lever, instead of having to ask for a new ballot.

They're prone to jamming. Once upon a time, in the Helms/Gantt Senate race, Durham was using them. They had to keep the polls open way late (10:00 or 11:00) because they were jamming all over town. Something to do with voting split tickets and an independent county commissioner.

Due to the visibility of the race, it got a lot of national air play.

-jk

Hmm. That was just before I could vote. Otherwise, I'd have voted against Helms. I remember convincing other people to vote against him.

Anyway, I don't remember that, but I believe you. Sounds like bad maintenance to me.

I have used those machines before. I think they were all mechanical, making punched cards and having a total computed. Not a bad system, but parts and maintenance were nightmares.

I LOVE those big mechanical booths. I used to beg my mom to let me go with her when she'd vote so i could pull the levers. It felt substantial. It felt like you were DOING something with every satisfying clunk. And when you exited the polling guy would pull that big lever and *CLANK*, your vote was registered. I think I've seen a comedian do a bit about that exact feeling. Hm. Anyhow, now just drawing a line or filling in a circle doesn't resonate the same.

Guess what kind of booth I voted in on Tuesday?

Did I mention there was no line?

Funny you should mention Helms and his various challengers over the years. I had been convinced for months that Bush would win easily, and people were thinking I was nuts. I had to patiently explain how the pollsters back in N.C. always showed Helms' challengers neck-and-neck with him, and he always managed to win easily -- BECAUSE PEOPLE FREAKIN' LIE. Same as on J.D. Power surveys.
<weakly supported generalization>
All polling and surveys are a complete joke. It's like calling the metoerology of weather-forecasting a hard "science."
</weakly supported generalization>