NJ-SEN: More Voting Machine Troubles
Reader GA writes:
I live in Montclair NJ, heavy Democratic territory. Went to vote at 10:30 am; the two electronic voting machines for my district (Ward 3, District 5) and the neighboring District which votes in the same location (Ward 3, District 3) were both broken. [Poll workers said] both had been operational at the open but broke when people tried to put in write-in candidates. . . . I was handed an emergency ballot and had to fill it out in the open room. Not enough pens to go around and it does not look like there are enough emergencey ballots on hand for the rest of the day.
BlueJersey.com reports voting machine troubles in Montclair, as well as in North Plainfield, Bloomfield and elsewhere.
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So let's see this makes NJ, PA, OH and CO now reporting "widespread" problems with the e-voting machines. Is it a conspiracy? Is it suppression? Is it incompetence of the "volunteers" who work the polls? Or is it incompetence on the part of the companies that make the machines?
All this is supposed to make me more confident that all the votes will be counted in a very important election? This the 3rd election in a row that the machines have malfunctioned. At best I guess that is what happens when we give the awesome responsibility of making the machines which count our votes in elections to the lowest bidder...
These machines need to completely taken apart to see what the problem is...too much is at stake not to.
November 7, 2006 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Much simpler solution: Throw away all these crappy machines, open up bidding to new companies and start over. There is no reason at all for these machines not to be working. Diebold has ATM machines all over that don't have problems. Scantron machines were used when I was in high school 10 years ago--and they didn't have this many problems. Technology has only gotten better since then. I voted on a machine my first time at the polls (1996) and there were no problems at all at that time. I'm supposed to believe things got worse?
November 7, 2006 12:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. Scrap all the machines in current use and start again from scratch. There is no reason with the advances in technology that the problems should be getting worse not better. Yep...the ATM machines are fine but the voting machines are FUBAR? Great points...
I just voted in CT-1. We had new voting machines. The way it works is I had to fill out "bubbles" on a form which was then inserted in to a machine for storage. Then I guess those forms will be scanned by a tabulting machine later to figure out the results. Up to now I had only voted on an old "lever" machines...which I still prefer...simple, easy and had more confidence (than I had today) that my vote would be "counted".
November 7, 2006 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I voted today in Cleveland Heights, heart of Cuyahoga County Ohio, renown for voting troubles, and a place with a very sketchy record when it comes to elections. Today was my first experience with the new electronic machines, and here are a few comments. First of all, many of the people living in my area are older, and "not computer savy" is a vast understatment. Many of those folks were taking lots of time,asking questions, etc.Fortunately, there were not many people there yet, however in a heavy turnout I predict disaster, the whole process is just too time consuming. Second, I saw a picture of some Ohio voters today in a rural area, and could not help but notice that they had no less than 10-15 of these voting machines, yet in urban Cleveland Heights, we had a scant eight machines. So the next question is, who decides how many machines each voting place gets? Seems to me an urban area should be getting lots of these devices, whereas the country folk should be getting less, due to the lower population density.
On another note, in Ohio we had no less than two tobacco related propositions, issue 4, supported by the tobacco lobby, but craftily worded to confuse the voting public, and issue 5, a ban on smoking in the workplace and other areas. Whoever allowed these two issues to be next to each other should be fired, as the electronic machinery presents each issue in number order, which causes much confusion. In conclusion, yes the machines work, however the jury is out as to whether the system is sustainable long term. Internet voting anyone?
November 7, 2006 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink