Not Diebold, around here

[ritaxis]

Diebold machines are among the ones certified for the state of California -- another thing ytou can thank the Republicans for. But in Santa Cruz County, we're not using those. We're using machines by Sequoyah which have a paper trail and a whole raft of fail safe provisions. And we have an alternative paper ballot system with a scanner in the polling place and the memory card and all the paper ballots go to the county. There are all these receipt and ticket systems to make sure the same number of votes are counted as are cast.

I know this because I just came home from election clerk class. Our county clerk is the best in the world. She made us chant "Let the Voter Vote" and she made us do the Chicken Polka (it made sense at the time) and we had to do role plays to figure out how to enable every kind of voter and how to assist voters who need he;lp without voting for them.

This is just so cool. If only Florida and Ohio had election officials like our county's, everything would be different . . .

So, yeah. I'm sort of looking forward to the seventh.

Though I have to admit I'm still puzzled about: port commissioner (I'm supposed to vote for two, and if I don't get any better information, I'll vote for the retired fisherman and the water conservation technician), city school board, and a handful of propositions. And the judges? It's a yes-or-no vote. What am I to do with this? It doesn't make a difference what I vote in those situations, does it?

Comments

I've never figured out

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

the whole voting for judges thing here in Missouri. You get hit with 20 or so judges and we get no information unless you're unemployed and obsessed with the courts. Unless it's someone who has advertised in my area, I usually just go yes/no alternately for every one. I know it's not scientific or thoughtful, and since I don't keep track of 'those' returns, useless.

Just my 2 cents, ymmv.

Re: I've never figured out

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Our ballot is so long I'm tempted to just not vote on the things I don't figure out.

[n6tqs.livejournal.com]

It sounds as if you're using the Sequoyah touchscreen machines for your primary voting method, and the paper ballots with a scanner as secondary.

Here in Alameda County, the paper ballots with scanner for validity check (they'll notify the voter for a blank ballot, overvote, or ambiguous markings) and preliminary count, are the primary method. We'll have one touchscreen machine for people who can't use the paper ballots unaided.
But the paper ballot that's printed from the touchscreen is that actual voted ballot in that case. Of course, anyone who needs to use the touchscreen is unlikely to be able to actually read what's printed out, and it looks as if the paper in those machines is thermal paper, which has a tendency to fade when exposed to light or heat.

They still don't trust me to be an inspector, but did let me be a judge and take the training. I was interested to find that they require ID to show that you were the person appointed, and only appointed poll workers were allowed into the training.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

The way it was presented, "paper or plastic" were about equal, and we seem to be expecting more people to want to do paper. There will be one touchscreen for each precinct, and one scanner, but six voting booths (one with the wheelchair extenders on the front legs). So theoretically, a person might have to wait to vote on the touchscreen, but not to vote on paper, so people would probably choose paper in the rush times.

This is only my second time doing this. Years ago I was a pollwatcher: that was after the last election in the county with systematic irregularities. Santa Cruz used to be a completely corrupt county, with all the trimmings. When the Democratic Socialists entered politics, along with the rest of the lefty folks (a lot of them affiliated with the University and the Community College, both of which were built in the mid-sixties: but many of them just here because it was at that time a cheap place to live), there was a period of struggle over the government of the county, with some ballot box shenanigans on the part of the old guard. Which is why I volunteered to follow a ballot box from the polling place to the County building basement that night. And I checked the alpha list and roster a couple of times during the day, though I forget how I checked it.

So anyway, I don't expect to be an inspector for a long while, if ever.

[n6tqs.livejournal.com]

Oh, OK- that's the same setup we have, but it was shown that voting on the touchscreen was pretty slow, so most people are expected to use the paper ballots.

I was an inspector in my local precinct for 10 years, with no problems, and I was asked to be the troubleshooter for the area. Then we had training on the Diebold touchscreen machines- I saw the problems immediatley, and contacted the Registrar of Voters to make sure he was aware of those problems and to find if he had any plans for addressing those problems. I was then banned from being a poll worker for several years. I only got off the banned list because a friend of mine is a lawyer for the Democrat Party working on election issues, and was able to intervene for me.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Our touchscreens are pretty quick as long as I remember to push hard enough. I'm usually done in about 30 seconds. I'll ask my upstairs neighbor if he wants to go with me on Tuesday -- he uses a magnifying glass to see and mark the candidates and then I help him move from screen to screen.